Professional Interests

Dr. Kim is Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), of Microbiology & Immunology, and of Pathology. Her laboratory focuses upon understanding the pathogenesis of toxoplasmosis and malaria, parasitic diseases of global significance. The Toxoplasma projects use a multidisciplinary systems biology approach to understand how the parasite senses and responds to changes in its host. Using a combination of epigenomics, genetics and proteomics, her group is studying how the parasite transitions from the pathogenic tachyzoite form to the persistent bradyzoite form. She is investigating the epigenetic and genetic factors that govern the host response to parasites. 

Dr. Kim has worked with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium yoelii rodent models to develop new malaria drug treatments and to understand malaria virulence. Recently she has developed collaborations with clinical investigators at the Blantyre Malaria Project in Malawi to understand the clinical impact of HIV co-infection upon cerebral malaria. Dr. Kim is Director of the NIH-funded Training Program in Geographic Medicine and Emerging Infections that supports graduate students and post-doctoral fellows (MD or PhD) pursuing mentored basic science and translational global infectious diseases research.

Selected Publications

1. Ting LM, Shi W, Lewandowicz A, Singh V, Mwakingwe A, Birck MR, Ringia EA, Bench G, Madrid DC, Tyler PC, Evans GB, Furneaux RH, Schramm VL*, Kim K*. Targeting a novel Plasmodium falciparumpurine recycling pathway with specific immucillins.J Biol Chem. 2005 Mar 11;280(10):9547-54. Epub 2004 Dec 2.PMID: 15576366 *joint corresponding
2. Jongco AM, Ting LM, Thathy V, Mota MM, Kim K.Improved transfection and new selectable markers for the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2006 Apr;146(2):242-50. Epub 2006 Jan 17. PMID: 16458371
3. Gissot M, Kelly KA, Ajioka JW, Greally JM, Kim K. Epigenomic modifications predict active promoters and gene structure in Toxoplasma gondii. PLoS Pathog. 2007 Jun;3(6):e77. PMID: 17559302
4. Gissot M, Ting LM, Daly TM, Bergman LW, Sinnis P, Kim K. High mobility group protein HMGB2 is a critical regulator of Plasmodium oocyst development. J Biol Chem. 2008 Apr 8; [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 18400754
5. Thompson RF, Reimers M, Khulan B, Gissot M, Richmond TA, Chen Q, Zheng X, Kim K, Greally JM. An analytical pipeline for genomic representations used for cytosine methylation studies. Bioinformatics. 2008 Mar 18; [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 18353789
6. Binder EM, Lagal V, Kim K. The prodomain of Toxoplasma gondii GPI-anchored subtilase TgSUB1 mediates its targeting to micronemes. Traffic. 2008 Jun 2. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 18532988
7. Ting LM, Gissot M, Coppi A, Sinnis P, Kim K. Attenuated Plasmodium yoelii lacking purine nucleoside phosphorylase confer protective immunity. Nat Med. 2008 Sep;14(9):954-8.PMID: 1875844
8. Madrid DC, Ting LM, Waller KL, Schramm VL, Kim K. Plasmodium falciparum purine nucleoside phosphorylase is critical for viability of malaria parasites. J Biol Chem. 2008 Dec 19;283(51):35899-907. Epub 2008 Oct 28. PMID: 18957439
9. Dybas JM, Madrid-Aliste CJ, Che FY, Nieves E, Rykunov D, Angeletti RH, Weiss LM, Kim K, Fiser A. Computational Analysis and Experimental Validation of Gene Predictions in Toxoplasma gondii. PLoS ONE. 2008;3(12):e3899. Epub 2008 Dec 9. PMID: 19065262 
10. Madrid-Aliste CJ, Dybas JM, Hogue Angeletti R, Weiss LM, Kim K, Simon I, Fiser A. EPIC-DB: a proteomics database for studying Apicomplexan organisms. BMC Genomics. 2009 Jan 21;10(1):38. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19159464
11. Mwakingwe A, Ting LM, Hochman S, Chen J, Sinnis P, Kim K. Non-Invasive Real-Time Monitoring of Liver Stage Development of Bioluminescent Plasmodium Parasites. J Infect Dis. 2009 Nov 1;200(9):1470-8. PMID: 19811100
12. Lagal V, Binder EM, Diez R, Chen D, Kafsack BFC, Cole R, Carruthers VB, Kim K. Toxoplasma gondii protease TgSUB1 is required for surface processing of micronemal adhesive complexes that mediate host cell attachment and invasion. Cell Microbiol. 2010 Jul 30. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 2067817
13. Che^, FY, Madrid-Aliste C Burd B, ZhangH, NievesE, KimK, Fiser A, Angeletti RH, Weiss LM, Comprehensive Proteomic Analysis of Membrane Proteins in Toxoplasma gondii. Mol Cell Prot. 2011 Jan;10(1):M110.000745. Epub 2010 Oct 10.PMID: 20935347
14. Brooks CF, Francia ME, Gissot M, Croken MM, Kim K*, Striepen B*.  Toxoplasmagondii sequesters centromeres to a specific nuclear region throughout the cell cycle. Proc Nat Acad Sci  2011 March 1; 108(9):3767-72. Epub 2011 Feb 14.*joint corresponding PMID: 21321216
15. Vera IM, Beatty WL, Sinnis P, Kim K. The Plasmodium yoelii rhomboid protease ROM1 is critical for proper parasitophorous vacuole formation. PLoS Pathog. 2011 Sep;7(9):e1002197. Epub 2011 Sep 1. PubMed PMID: 21909259; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3164628.
16. Suvorova ES, Croken MM, Kratzer S, Conde de Felipe M, Balu B, Markville LM, Weiss LM, Kim K,  White MW. Discovery of a splicing regulator required for cell cycle progression. PLoS Genet. 2013 Feb;9(2):e1003305. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003305. Epub 2013 Feb 21.PMID: 23437009 
17. Walker R,Gissot M, Croken MM, HuotL, Hot D, Kim K, Tomavo S. The Toxoplasma nuclear factor TgAP2XI-4 controls bradyzoite gene expression and cyst formation. Mol Microbiol. 2013 Feb;87(3):641-55. doi: 10.1111/mmi.12121. Epub 2012 Dec 26.PMID: 23240624
18. NardelliSC, Che FY, Silmon de MonerriNC, XiaoH, NievesE, Madrid-AlisteC, Angel S,  Sullivan Jr WJ, AngelettiRH, Kim K^*, Weiss LM^*. The Histone Code of Toxoplasma gondii Comprises Conserved and Unique Post-translational Modifications. MBio. 2013 Dec 10;4(6). pii: e00922-13. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00922-13. PubMed PMID:  24327343. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3870261*joint corresponding
19. Tomita T, BzikDJ, Ma YF, Fox BA, Markillie LM, Kim K, Weiss LM. The Toxoplasma gondii cyst wall protein CST1 is critical for cyst wall integrity and promotes bradyzoite persistence. PLoS Pathogens PLoS Pathog. 2013 Dec;9(12):e1003823. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003823. Epub 2013 Dec 26. PubMed PMID: 24385904; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3873430.
20. Wang J, Dixon SE, Ting LM, Liu TK, Jeffers V, Croken MM, Calloway M, Cannella D, Hakimi MA, Kim K, Sullivan Jr WJ.  Lysine acetyltransferase GCN5b interacts with AP2 factors and is required for Toxoplasma gondii proliferation. PLoS Pathog. 2014 Jan;10(1):e1003830. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003830. Epub 2014 Jan 2. PubMed PMID: 24391497; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3879359
21. Donaldson TM, Ting LM, Zhan C, Shi W, Zheng R, Almo SC, Kim K. Structural determinants of the 5'-methylthioinosine specificity of Plasmodium purine nucleoside phosphorylase. PLoS One. 2014 Jan 8;9(1):e84384. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084384. eCollection 2014. PubMed PMID: 24416224; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3885546.
22. Donaldson TM, Cassera MB, Ho MC, Zhan C, Merino EF, Evans GB, Tyler PC, Almo SC, Schramm VL, Kim K. Inhibition And Structure of Toxoplasma gondii Purine Nucleoside Phosphorylase. Eukaryot Cell. 2014 Feb 28. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 24585883. 
23. Silmon de Monerri NC, Kim K. Pathogens Hijack the Epigenome: A New Twist on Host-Pathogen Interactions. Am J Pathol. 2014 Feb 11. pii: S0002-9440(14)00027-3. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2013.12.022. [Epub ahead of print] Review. PubMed PMID: 24525150.
24. Croken MM, Qiu W, White MW, Kim K.Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) of Toxoplasma gondii expression datasets links cell cycle progression and the bradyzoite developmental program. BMC Genomics. 2014 Jun 24;15:515. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-15-515.PMID: 24962434 PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4092224.
25. Croken MM, Ma Y, Markillie LM, Taylor RC, Orr G, Weiss LM, Kim K. Distinct Strains of Toxoplasma gondii Feature Divergent Transcriptomes Regardless of Developmental Stage. PLoS One. 2014 Nov 13;9(11):e111297. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111297. eCollection 2014. PubMed PMID: 25393307
26. Hochman SE, Madaline TF, Wassmer SC, Mbale E, Choi N, Seydel KB, Varughese J, Grau GER, Kamiza S, Molyneux ME, Whitten R,Taylor TE, Lee S, Milner DA, Kim K. Fatal Pediatric Cerebral Malaria is Associated with Intravascular Monocytes and Platelets that are Increased with HIV Co-infection. mBIO In Press 2015