Dr. Ross Okimoto is a medical oncologist specializing in the care of adult patients with soft tissue and bone sarcomas. He works with a team of surgeons, radiation oncologists and pathologists to provide the best possible outcomes for his patients.
Okimoto attended Creighton University School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency training at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and his medical oncology fellowship at UCSF.
Awards & Honors
Award
Confired By  
Date  
Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award Finalist
2021
National Cancer Institute R37 MERIT Award
2021
American Society of Clinical Investigation Young Physician-Scientist Award
2019
NIH-NCI Career Development Award (K08)
2018
NIH-NCI Career Development Award (K08)
2018 - 2023
UCSF DOM Cohort Iniative Award
2018
A.P. Giannini Postdoctoral Fellowship
2015
Research Overview
A physician-scientist, Okimoto conducts research in addition to providing clinical care. The overall goal of his laboratory-based investigations is to help improve outcomes for cancer patients. His current research work focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that promote tumor cell metastasis.
Thomas NJ, Luck C, Shlimon N, Ponce RK, Kosibaty Z, Okimoto RA. Mapping chromatin state and transcriptional response in CIC-DUX4 undifferentiated round cell sarcoma. bioRxiv. 2023 Oct 12. View in PubMed
Gupta N, Song H, Wu W, Ponce RK, Lin YK, Kim JW, Small EJ, Feng FY, Huang FW, Okimoto RA. The CIC-ERF co-deletion underlies fusion-independent activation of ETS family member, ETV1, to drive prostate cancer progression. Elife. 2022 Nov 16; 11. View in PubMed
Kim JW, Luck C, Wu W, Ponce RK, Lin YK, Gupta N, Okimoto RA. Capicua suppresses YAP1 to limit tumorigenesis and maintain drug sensitivity in human cancer. Cell Rep. 2022 10 04; 41(1):111443. View in PubMed
Bennett NK, Nakaoka HJ, Laurent D, Okimoto RA, Sei Y, Horvai AE, Bivona TG, Ten Hoeve J, Graeber TG, Nakamura K, Nakamura JL. Primary and metastatic tumors exhibit systems-level differences in dependence on mitochondrial respiratory function. PLoS Biol. 2022 09; 20(9):e3001753. View in PubMed
Nanjo S, Wu W, Karachaliou N, Blakely CM, Suzuki J, Chou YT, Ali SM, Kerr DL, Olivas VR, Shue J, Rotow J, Mayekar MK, Haderk F, Chatterjee N, Urisman A, Yeo JC, Skanderup AJ, Tan AC, Tam WL, Arrieta O, Hosomichi K, Nishiyama A, Yano S, Kirichok Y, Tan DS, Rosell R, Okimoto RA, Bivona TG. Deficiency of the splicing factor RBM10 limits EGFR inhibitor response in EGFR-mutant lung cancer. J Clin Invest. 2022 07 01; 132(13). View in PubMed