Biography

Dr. Kim received her PhD at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea. During her PhD, she focused on the regulation of the growth hormone axis in endocrine disorders such as acromegaly and diabetes. With the background in neuroendocrinology, she joined Dr. Cho’s lab at Burke Medical Research Institute for postdoctoral training and was promoted to an instructor at Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine in 2013. During the training period, Dr. Kim acquired expertise in vivo physiology and pathology of stroke and defined the impact of comorbid conditions in stroke pathophysiology.

In 2017, Dr. Kim joined the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. She currently focuses on NIH-funded studies to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying stroke and brain arteriovenous malformations.

 

Education

Graduate School
Microbiology, Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea
Doctorate
Neuroendocrinology/Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea

Areas of Interest

Research Interests

Dr. Kim’s research is focused on evaluating molecular and genetic mechanisms, biomarkers, and the inflammatory response involved in stroke pathology. Although stroke is one of the major causes of disability and death worldwide, limited options are available for stroke patients. Several risk factors, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes, have been involved in higher stroke incidence and poorer outcomes; however, the underlying mechanism(s) of the negative impact is not clear. By incorporating the risk factors in animal models of stroke, Dr. Kim is particularly interested in determining how post-stroke stress response is regulated in comorbid conditions and how it affects stroke-induced immune response and stroke outcomes, including acute injury and long-term recovery.

Another line of research is focused on understanding the pathology of brain arteriovenous malformation (bAVM). Brain arteriovenous malformation (bAVM) is a tangle of blood vessels with aberrant connections between arteries and veins without an intervening capillary bed. Although bAVM is rare, bAVM patients are at high risk of life-threatening intracerebral hemorrhages (ICHs). However, the treatment options for patients are limited, primarily relying on surgical methods, which can lead to neurological deficits or death. No pharmacologic drug is available, primarily because of the poor understanding of pathophysiologic mechanisms in bAVM. Clinical studies have recently found endothelial cell (EC)-specific somatic activating KRAS mutations in up to 76% of sporadic bAVMs, which account for over 95% of bAVM cases. By KRASG12V overexpression in mouse brain ECs using AAV-BR1, Dr. Kim confirmed that KRAS mutation is sufficient for bAVM development and established a novel animal model of bAVM that displayed salient features of human bAVM. Using the novel clinically relevant mouse model of bAVMs, our current research focuses on identifying cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying bAVM pathophysiology.

Publications

PUBLICATIONS

  1. Jeong JY*, Bafor AE, Freeman BH, Chen PR, Park ES, and Kim E# (2024) Pathophysiology in brain arteriovenous malformations: Focus on endothelial dysfunctions and endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Biomedicines 2024, 12(8), 1795; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12081795
  2. Savarraj J*, McBride DW, Park E, Hinds S, Paz A, Gusdon A, Ren X, Pan S, Ahnstedt H, Delevati Colpo G, Kim E, Zhao Z, McCullough L, Choi H# (2022) Leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein 1 is a systemic biomarker of early brain injury and delayed cerebral ischemia after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Neurocritical Care 2023 Jun;38(3):771-780. doi: 10.1007/s12028-022-01652-7. Epub 2022 Dec 28. PMID: 36577901 PMCID: PMC10247387
  3. Kim S*, Park ES, Chen PR, and Kim E# (2022) Dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is associated with increased inflammation and worse outcomes after ischemic stroke in diabetic conditions. Frontiers in Immunology. 2022 Jun 16;13:864858. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.864858. eCollection 2022 PMID: 35784349 PMCID: PMC9243263
  4. Park, ES*#, Kim S, Yao DC, Savarraj JPJ, Choi HA, Chen PR, and Kim E# (2022) Soluble endoglin stimulates inflammatory and angiogenic responses in microglia that are associated with endothelial dysfunction. Int J Mol Sci. 23(3), 1225. Doi: 10.3390/ijms23031225PMID: 35163148 PMCID PMC8835690
  5. Savarraj J*, Park ES, Copo G, Hinds S, Morales D, Ahnstedt H, Paz A, Assing A, Juneja S, Kim E, Cho SM, Gusdon A, Dash P, McCullough L, Choi HA# (2021) Brain injury, endothelial injury and inflammatory markers are elevated and express sex specific alterations after COVID-19. J Neuroinflammation.2021 Nov 27;18(1):277. doi: 10.1186/s12974-021-02323-8. PubMed PMID: 34838058 PMCID: PMC8627162.
  6. Park ES*, Kim S, Huang S, Yoo JY, Körbelin J, Lee TJ, Kaur B, Dash PK, Chen PR#, Kim E# (2021) Selective endothelial hyperactivation of oncogenic KRAS induces brain arteriovenous malformations in mice. Ann Neurol, 2021 May;89(5):926-941. doi: 10.1002/ana.26059. Epub 2021 Mar 22. PMID: 33675084 (Featured in Cover)
  7. Yeh M*, Wang YY, Yoo JY, Oh C, Otani Y, Kang JM, Park ES, Kim E, Chung S, Jeon YJ, Calin GA, Kaur B#, Zhao Z# (2021) MicroRNA-138 suppresses glioblastoma proliferation through downregulation of CD44. Sci Rep, 2021 Apr 28;11(1):9219. Doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-88615-8. PMID: 33911148 PMCID: PMC8080729
  8. Kim E*, Cho S# (2021), Review, CNS and peripheral immunity in cerebral ischemia: partition and interaction. Experimental Neurology, 2021 Jan;335:113508. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2020.113508. Epub 2020 Oct 14. PMID: 33065078 PMCID: PMC7750306, Review
  9. Park KW*, Fury W, Wu Z, Kim E, Guo Y, Woo Ms, Bai Y, Macdonald LE, Croll SD, Cho S# (2020) Sustained increases in immune transcripts and immune cell trafficking during the recovery of experimental brain ischemia, 2020 Aug;51(8):2514-2525. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029440 Epub 2020 Jul 9. PMID: 32640942 PMCID: PMC7815290
  10. Yang J*, Kim E, Beltran C, Cho S# (2019) Corticosterone-mediated body weight loss is an important catabolic process for poststroke immunity and survival. 2019 Jul 26:STROKEAHA119026053. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.026053. PMID: 31345131 PMCID: PMC6710102
  11. Kim E*, Yang J, Park KW, and Cho S# (2019) ­­ Preventative, but not post-stroke, inhibition of CD36 attenuates brain swelling in hyperlipidemic stroke. J Cereb Blood flow Metab. 2019 May 15:271678X19850004. doi: 10.1177/0271678X19850004. PMID: 31092085 PMCID: PMC7168788
  12. Kim E*, Yang J, Park KW, Cho S# (2018) Inhibition of VEGF Signaling reduces diabetes-exacerbated brain swelling, but not infarct size, in large cerebral infarction in mice. Transl Stroke Res, 2018 Oct;9(5):540-548. doi: 10.1007/s12975-017-0601-z. Epub 2017 Dec 30. PMCID: PMC6057840