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.