Assistant Professor
Oklahoma State University
Dr. Yoo Kim, Ph.D., earned his B.S. in Life Sciences and M.S. in Biotechnology from Korea University in Seoul, South Korea. With seven years of industry experience, Dr. Kim contributed to research and development of dietary supplements aimed at preventing and treating obesity and type 2 diabetes. He then pursued a Ph.D. in Food Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
After completing postdoctoral fellowships at Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the National Institute on Aging at NIH, Dr. Kim joined the faculty of Nutritional Sciences at Oklahoma State University as an assistant professor in 2020.
Dr. Kim's research is dedicated to exploring nutrient-gene interactions in obesity and diabetes through nutrigenomics. He focuses on identifying novel interactions between nutrients and molecular markers within the insulin signaling pathway and examining their roles in metabolic homeostasis. A key aspect of his research involves the cannabinoid 1 receptor (CB1R), a G protein-coupled receptor that becomes significantly activated with obesity and aging due to increased endocannabinoid levels. Dr. Kim seeks to regulate CB1R levels using food bioactive compounds by unraveling the cross-talk between nutrients and CB1R, along with associated signaling molecules.