Min-Ho Kim
Biography
Min-Ho Kim, PhD is an Associate Professor in the department of Biological Sciences. He is also a graduate faculty member in the School of Biomedical Sciences and an affiliate member of Brain Health Research Institute and Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University. He earned his PhD in Bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University. He then completed his postdoctoral fellowship in the department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at LSU Health Shreveport and subsequently in the department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis. Dr. Kim joined Kent State University as an Assistant Professor in 2012. His research currently focuses on developing nanomedicine strategies for targeted therapeutics for treating diseases including multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, chronic wounds, and neurodegenerative diseases. His research program has been recognized with numerous grants, including the National Institute of Health (NIH) R01 awards.
Research Interests and Selective Publications
The overall goal of my research program is to develop nanomedicine strategies towards the treatment of various diseases such as bacterial infections, chronic wounds, and neurological disorders. Nanomedicine is a branch of medicine that applies the knowledge and tools of nanotechnology to the prevention and treatment of disease, which involves the use of nanoscale materials, such as biocompatible nanoparticles. My laboratory develops or utilizes various types of nanoparticles by means of harnessing their unique physicochemical properties for the purpose of either directly targeting pathogens such as multidrug-resistant bacteria, disrupting misfolded proteins such as amyloid plaques, or modifying pro-inflammatory environment of diseased tissue towards an anti-inflammatory and tissue regenerative environment.
Targeted magnetothermal stimulation of brain for Alzheimer’s disease: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting millions of people around the world and the first cause of dementia. Despite extensive research efforts, currently there are no effective treatment options for the disease. Amyloid plaques are pathological hallmarks of AD, agglomerations of misfolded proteins that accumulate in the brain. In a healthy brain, these proteins are broken down and eliminated, however, in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, amyloid plaques clump together between the nerve cells, disrupting neurons and resulting in the progressive cognitive impairment. Our goal is to tackle this issue by applying a minimally invasive non-pharmacological strategy that stimulates brain with high frequency electromagnetic field combined with magnetic nanoparticles. The principal of this approach is to translate the energy of electromagnetic field into mild thermal energy using magnetic nanoparticles as a transducer. The thermal energy can be tuned to impose a thermo-mechanical effect on amyloid plaques as well as trigger biological signal on brain cells towards the clearance of amyloid plaques with higher target specificity.
Related publications
- Dyne E, Prakash P, Li J, Yu B, Schmidt T, Huang S, Kim MH. Mild magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia promotes the disaggregation and microglia-mediated clearance of beta-amyloid plaques. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine, 34:102397, 2021
- Dyne E, Cawood M, Suzelis M, Russell R, Kim MH. Ultrastructural analysis of the morphological phenotypes of microglia associated neuroinflammatory cues. J Comparative Neurology, 530:1263-1275, 2022
Nanoparticle-based strategies to combat multidrug-resistant bacteria: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a huge threat to public health worldwide as bacterial strains continuously evolve to develop resistance to multiple antibiotics, which renders the treatment of multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria an immediate and formidable challenge. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop new or non-traditional anti-infective agents that attack a new target with new mechanisms of action. To address this, we are developing novel metal-based nanoparticles (Bi2O3 NP, Fe3O4 NP, Al2O3 NP) as antimicrobial agents by tuning their unique physicochemical properties towards exerting potent antibacterial effects with new modes of action as well as substantially delaying resistance development.
Related publications
- Pant BD, Benin BM, Abeydeera N, Kim MH, Huang S. Bi2O3 nanoparticles exhibit potent broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and the ability to overcome Ag-, ciprofloxacin- and meropenem-resistance in P. aeruginosa: the next silver bullet of metal antimicrobials? Biomaterials Science, 10:1523-1531, 2022
- Abeydeera N, Yu B, Bishnu P, Kim MH, Huang S. Harnessing the Toxicity of Dysregulated Iron Uptake for Killing Staphylococcus aureus: Reality or Mirage?. Biomaterials Science, 10:474-484, 2022
- Dassanayake T, Dassanayake A, Abeydeera N, Bishnu P, Jaroniec M, Kim MH, Huang S. An aluminum lining to the dark cloud of silver resistance: Harnessing the power of potent antimicrobial activity of γ-alumina nanoparticles. Biomaterials Science, 9:7996-8006, 2021
- Wang J, Li J, Benin B, Yu B, Bunge S, Abeydeera N, Huang S, Kim MH. Lipophilic Ga Complex with Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Activity and the Ability to Overcome Gallium Resistance in both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. J Medicinal Chemistry, 64:9381-9388, 2021
- Song R, Yu B, Friedrich D, Li J, Shen H, Krautscheid H, Huang S, and Kim MH. Napthoquinone-derivative as a synthetic compound to overcome the antibiotic resistance of methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Communications Biology, 3:529, 2020 [Behind the paper]
- Yu B., Wang Z., Almutairi L., Huang S.,and Kim MH. Harnessing iron oxide nanoparticles towards the improved bactericidal activity of macrophages against Staphylococcus aureus. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine, 24:102158, 2020
- Almutairi L, Yu B, Filka M, Nayfach J, and Kim MH. Mild magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia synergistically enhances the susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus biofilm to antibiotics. International Journal of Hyperthermia, 37:66-75, 2020
- Wang Z, Yu B, Alamri H, Yarabarla S, Kim MH, Huang S. KCa(H2O)2[FeIII(CN)6].H2O nanoparticles as a novel antimicrobial agent for Staphylococcus aureus. Angewandte Chemie, 57:2214-2218, 2018
Nanoparticle-integrated scaffolds for wound healing: Wound healing is a complex and dynamic process that involves interactions between different cellular components and mediators. A major pathological aspect of non-healing wounds such as diabetic wounds or burn wounds is characterized by wound infection recalcitrant to traditional antibiotics as well as reduced ability to induce angiogenesis, new blood vessel formation. In view of this, they have been major therapeutic targets for creating new treatments for non-healing wounds. Thus far, each of the above aspects has been separately investigated to a great extent, and many advances have been made in the past decades in each area. However, an integrated approach to simultaneous addressing these issues in a single drug delivery platform has yet to emerge. Our goal is to develop copper nanoparticle-based wound scaffolds that can simultaneously confer the scaffold with anti-infection as well as pro-angiogenic properties by means of harnessing the diverse function of copper, an essential metal for life, on bacteria as well as on human cells.
Related publications
- Yu B, Alboslemy T, Safadi F, Kim MH. Glycoprotein non-melanoma clone B regulates the crosstalk between macrophages and mesenchymal stem cells towards wound repair. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 138:219-217, 2018
Click here for complete list of published works
Courses Teaching
Spring 2023
- BSCI 4/5/70158 Molecular Biology
- BSCI 40600 Writing In Biological Sciences
Fall 2022
- BSCI 4/5/70463 - Medical Biotechnology
- BSCI 40600 - Writing In Biological Sciences
Education
Ph.D in Bioengineering at Pennsylvania State University
Affiliations
- Member, Biomedical Engineering Society
- Member, Wound Healing Society