UNMC_Acronym_Vert_sm_4c
University of Nebraska Medical Center

Jae Hyuk Yoo, PhD

Assistant Professor, UNMC Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science

Jae Hyuk Yoo, PhD, is an assistant professor focused on research in the UNMC Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

He moved to the United States in 2007 after attaining his master’s degree in South Korea. After spending several years studying lymphatic vessels under pathological conditions at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Southern California, he began doctoral training with Dr. Dean Li at the University of Utah where he studied the signaling pathways that drive oncogenesis and metastasis in cutaneous and uveal melanoma.

After receiving his PhD in 2015, Dr. Yoo continued to study uveal melanoma as a postdoctoral research associate under Drs. Dean Li and Shannon Odelberg at the University of Utah before joining UNMC in 2021.

Education

  • Master's: Molecular biology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea, 1999
  • PhD: Oncological sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015
  • Postdoc Fellowship: Molecular medicine, University of Utah
Research Interests
Dr. Yoo studies uveal melanoma, which is the most common primary ocular malignancy in adults, with the goal of identifying molecular pathways that can be therapeutically targeted to inhibit tumor growth and prevent metastasis. The long-term goal of his research is to unravel and to manipulate the distinct molecular pathways governing tumorigenesis and metastasis, so that novel therapeutic candidates can be identified for future drug development.