Dr. Ho Min Kim received Master degree at the department of biological science, KAIST in 2001, and his PhD degree on the crystal structure of angiotensin I-converting enzyme bound to hypertension drug and B cell-activating factor (BAFF)/their receptor (BAFFR) complex at KAIST in 2005. After two and half years postdoctoral fellow at KAIST under the supervision of Dr. Jie-oh Lee to determine TLR4/MD2 crystal structure, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Yifan Cheng at University of California, San Francisco, USA to receive the training in single particle Cryo-EM.
Since he joined Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering (GSMSE), KAIST as an assistant professor in 2011, his research has focused on the structure analysis of disease-related protein complexes using X-ray crystallography and Cryo-EM to unveil their underlying molecular mechanisms and pathophysiological roles. Particularly, he investigated the dynamic transfer cascade of bacterial endotoxin LPS to TLR4/MD2 via LBP and CD14 for activating innate immune response. He also determined the 3D structure of various synaptic adhesion complex which are critical for synapse formation and maturation. More recently, he has applied his expertise in structural biology to protein engineering for developing therapeutic proteins to treat cancer.
He is currently a tenured Associate Professor at Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering (GSMSE), Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), and a Chief Investigator at Center for Biomolecular & Cellular Structure, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Korea.

Dr. Takashi Suzuki at Tokyo Institute of Technology has been focused on the pioneering work, “Formation of functional neuronal circuits” using drosophila visual system, and discovered several key proteins for axon targeting of photoreceptor cells. Now, his group is investigating how these key proteins influence the targeting specificity of photoreceptor axons and trying to identify their novel interacting partners. My research group have determined the crystal structure of several key proteins on neuronal synapse and has been undertaking the protein engineering-based technology development to discover the novel binding targets. I’m very sure that the unique WRHI program enable to combine my expertise in structural biology and protein engineering with Dr. Suzuki’s expertise in neuroscience and drosophila physiology. Through this close collaboration supported by WRHI, we can understand the functional neural circuit in visual system from molecules to cellular and individual organism level comprehensively in near future. I’m also expecting that my visit enables me to come in contact with many of talented Japanese students and researchers for developing new scientific projects.

• Our research group has been undertaking innovative research to discover the novel binding targets of uncharacterized LRR-containing proteins and their cellular signaling network. These newly identified binding partners for uncharacterized LRR-containing proteins as well as the supramolecular signaling complexes will be the key targets for our structural research. Our challenging approach will contribute to understand the molecular mechanism of uncharacterized LRR-containing proteins as well as their physiological and pathological roles.