Tae-Hee Kim

Dr. Tae-Hee Kim is a Senior Scientist at SickKids Research Insitute and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. After his PhD and postdoctoral training under supervision of Dr. Lee Niswander at Cornell/Sloan-Kettering Institute and Dr. Ramesh Shivdasani at Harvard/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, respectively, Kim established his independent research program at SickKids, Toronto in 2014. His group has defined the signaling and epigenetic mechanisms of gut stem cell niches.

Research

The Kim Lab addresses three fundamentally important questions: 

1. How different organs and cell types are generated from stem cells and maintained for proper function over a lifetime,
2. How mechanisms of normal stem cell homeostasis may be altered in diseases such as cancer and inflammation, and
3. How stem cells interact with their microenvironment to maintain homeostasis and promote disease.

Read more on the Kim Lab website.

Education and experience

• 2022–present: Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Canada
• 2021–present: Senior Scientist, Developmental & Stem Cell Biology, SickKids, Canada
• 2014–2021: Scientist/Assistant Professor, Developmental & Stem Cell Biology, SickKids/University of Toronto, Canada
• 2011–2014: Instructor, Development and Stem cells, Harvard Medical School, USA
• 2007–2011: Post-doctoral Fellow, Development and Stem cells, Harvard University/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA
• 1999–2006: Ph.D., Cell Biology and Genetics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cornell University/Sloan Kettering Institute, USA
• 1997–1999: M.Sc., Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
• 1991–1996: B.Sc., Biology, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea

Achievements

• 2018: Conquer Cancer Now Award, Concern Foundation
• 2017: Early Career Researcher Program Award, OICR/CIHR/CCS
• 2016: March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award
• 2014: Catalyst Scholar in Regenerative Medicine
• 2012: NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)
• 2011: North American NeuroEndocrine Tumor Society Early Career Development Award

1. Gut microbiota promotes stem cell differentiation through macrophage and mesenchymal niches in early postnatal development. Kim JE, Fei L, Horne R, Lee D, Loe AK, Miyake H, Ayar E, Kim DK, Surette MG, Philpott DJ, Sherman P, Guo G, Pierro A, KimT-H. Immunity 2022 Dec 05 (Featured in SickKids news, previewed by Immunity)
2. Smith RJ*, Zhang H*, Hu SS*, Yung T, Francis F, Lee L, Onaitis MW, Dirks PB, Zhang C^#, Kim T-H^# (* equal contribution; ^# co-corresponding authors). Single cell chromatin profiling of the primitive gut tube reveals regulatory dynamics underlying lineage fate decisions. Nature Communications 2022 May 26;13(1):2965. (Featured in CBS19 news, Nature Portfolio Health Community, Bioengineer.org, EurekAlert!, ScienMag, Verve times, Phys.org, Swift Telecast and UVA Health system news room)
3. Baghdadi MB, Ayyaz A, Coquenlorge S, Chu B, Kumar S, Streutker C, Wrana JL and Kim T-H. Enteric glial cell heterogeneity regulates intestinal stem cell niches. Cell Stem Cell 2022 Jan 6;29(1):86-100. (Featured in UofT Molecular Genetics news, “the role of gut brain cells in IBD”, recommended by Faculty Opinions, and previewed by Cell Stem Cell)
4. Loe AKH*, Francis R*, Seo J, Lutao D, Wang Y, Kim JE, Hakim SW, Kim JE, He HH, Guo H#, Kim T-H# (* equal contribution; # co-corresponding authors). Uncovering the dosage-dependent roles of Arid1a in gastric tumorigenesis for combinatorial drug therapy. Journal of Experimental Medicine (2021) Jun 7; 218(6). (Featured in Ebiotrade)
5. Rao-Bhatia A, Zhu M, Yin WC, Coquenlorge S, Zhang X, Woo JH, Dean CH, Liu A, Hui CC, Shivdasani RA, McNeill H, Hopyan S, Kim T-H. Fat4-Dchs1 and planar cell polarity pathways activated by Hedgehog mediate mesenchymal clustering and villus formation during mammalian gut development. Developmental Cell 2020 Mar 09;52(5) p647-658. (Featured in SickKids news, "Intestinal intelligence" and recommended by Faculty Opinions)

View a full list of Tae-Hee Kim's publications

Funding

• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) Medicine by Design
• Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation (CCF) USA
• Banting & Best Diabetes Centre (BBDC)