Finally this came...

I am deeply honored to receive the NIH/NIGMS MIRA ESI award, which will support our research on “Cell type-specific molecular mechanisms by which glucose availability regulates cell mechanics and function” over the next five years. I am sincerely grateful to many individuals who have supported me along the way—especially my incredible lab members, esteemed colleagues, dedicated collaborators, and generous mentors.

Dr. Kim was invited to the 6th International Conference on Cell and Experimental Biology (CEB-2025) to present his recent work, "Targeting GLUT3 as an Anti-metastasis Regimen in Triple-negative Breast Cancer", in the Cell Signaling & Cancer Biology session. 

April 23-25, 2025
Houston, TX

Dr. Kim presented his work entitled "Harnessing cell mechanotype and glucose metabolism to prevent cancer metastasis" as a Proposal of Korea-US joint research and cooperation model at the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) Forum during the US-Korea Conference (UKC) 2024. 

San Francisco, CA

Dr. Kim was appointed to serve as the chair of Communications Subcommittee in the American Association of Cancer Research Tumor Microenvironment Working Group (TME). 

Follow this link to learn more about the group.
You can also join a LinkedIn group by following this link.

Thank you for the opportunity and will look forward to having a productive discussion, collaboration, and networking within the AACR-TME Working Group!

I am very glad to share the news that our pilot project was funded by the American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (ACS-IRG).  In this project, we will test our hypothesis, high-glucose promotes breast cancer cell invasion by regulating cell mechanotype via cAMP and AMPK axis, and targeting the mechanotype regulation signaling pathway will prevent glucose-induced cell invasion, by delineating signaling pathways by which high glucose alters mechanotype in breast cancer cells. 

Thank you UNM Cancer Center leadership and the reviewers!

Dr. Kim was selected as one of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Research Conference (MBCRC) Advocate Researcher Program (MARP) fellows. As an inaugural member of the MARP, Dr. Kim attended the 10th MBCRC, which took place in Park City, UT. 

Thanks to the MARP, the Kim lab now has an official patient advocate who will help our research, and more to come. Stay tuned!

Congratulations to Dr. Oh for her first first-authored research paper in the Kim lab!

Dr. Oh's research demonstrates that high glucose increases breast cancer cell stiffness and contractility, which is associated with increased cell migration and invasion. This work was published in the journal of Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC) in the Special Issue on Forces On And Within Cells. 

https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10.1091/mbc.E22-12-0560

Congratulations to all the authors!

Welcome, Dr. Aadil Qadir Bhat!

Dr. Bhat earned his Ph.D. degree in Biological Science from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu, J&K, India in 2022. He joined the lab in March 2023 to study the regulatory roles of extracellular nutrients on the mechanical behaviors and biological functions of cancer and immune cells. 

A group photo after welcome lunch on 4/26/2023. A special guest, Dr. Masroor, who helped Dr. Bhat's settle down. Thank you!

Dr. Kim was awarded the GMaP Travel Funds to attend AACR Annual Meeting 2023. The AACR Annual Meeting 2023 will take place this April 14-19, 2023 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. 

Thank you GMaP for your support, and this will be an exciting opportunity for my career development. 

Our pilot grant proposal to examine the differential expression level of cell mechanotype regulating genes in human breast cancer tissue microarray was awarded from the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Thank you UNMCCC and we are very excited to conduct this research!

Dr. Kim attended to the US-KOREA Conference on Science, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (UKC) 2022. He served as a Symposium Co-Chair of the "Medical Science, Pharmaceutical Science, Veterinary Medicine, Physical Education (MPS)" as well as served as a Session Chair of the MPS "KASBP Session: Metabolism in health and diseases".  In his session, he also presented his work entitled "Regulatory role of glucose on cancer cell mechanotype and motility".

August 17-20, 2022
Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA

Dr. Kim was selected as one of the 2022 Fellows in the Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) Training Workshop. 

It was a truly informative workshop and we learned a lot about energy balance, exercise, nutrition, behavioral changes, etc. regarding cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship. 

Also, meeting lots of new and good colleagues was a big bonus!

June 19-24, 2022
Water's Edge Resort & Spa, Westbrook, CT

Dr. Oh presented her work at the Annual Pathology Research Day hosted by the Department of Pathology at the University of New Mexico. 

Mijung discovered that cellular mechanotypes of breast cancer cells, such as deformability and contractility, are altered by different extracellular glucose levels. Such changes in mechanotype are mediated through F-actin remodeling and actomyosin contractility and ultimately affect cell motility. More details will be available when the manuscript is published. Stay tuned!

Thu 5/12/2022 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Crowne Plaza Hotel - New Mexico Ballroom

Pleased to announce that Dr. Kim was selected as a mentored PI (mPI) within the Autophagy, Inflammation and Metabolism (AIM) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) at the University of New Mexico. The awarded mPI Research Project will be funded in the amount of $171K during the award period until August 2022 with conditional renew in the following years. Thank you so much for this opportunity and we are very excited to work on the project!

Dr. Kim was awarded a voucher from the IDeA National Resource for Quantitative Proteomics. We are very excited to conduct a proteomics analysis by using this voucher program!

We thank the sponsor and we are happy to announce that Dr. Kim has been awarded METAvivor Early Career Investigator Grant for the study of cancer and immune cell mechanotypes, aiming to improve immunotherapy in metastatic breast cancer.

https://www.metavivor.org/blog/metavivor-announces-additional-metastatic-breast-cancer-research-awards-for-1/

The lab is getting filled!

Also, the Kim lab twitter account was created: @UnmKim

The Kim Lab was officially established in August of 2020.