Yun-gi Kim PhD

Yun-Gi Kim has worked as a graduate student in Japan, as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the United States, and as an assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba in Japan on several aspects of innate and mucosal immunity. He is interested in signaling pathways regulating innate immunity, and the pathogenesis of the inflammatory disease. Specifically, the research focuses on mechanistic studies to understand the role of members of the Nod-like receptor (NLR) and Toll-like receptor (TLR) families in the host immune response against microbial pathogens. He has focused on understanding the activation and function of Nod1/Nod2 in the regulation of intestinal inflammation. This work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals.

Currently, his work is focused on studies to understand the role of innate immune sensors and gut microbiota in inflammatory disease and host defense against enteric pathogens. Especially, He is interested in whether and how gut microbes control host immunity both inside and outside the gut. He recently found that antibiotic treatment can cause an overgrowth of particular fungal species in the gut which promotes M2 macrophage activation at distant sites to influence systemic responses including allergic inflammation in the lung.