Stuart K. Kim

Dr. Stuart K. Kim is Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine. Kim uses systems biology and functional genomics to study genetic networks and aging in Caenorhabditis elegans, mice, and humans. His research asks the questions: is there an underlying intrinsic clock for aging that determines our lifespan? What are the regulatory factors that control our rate of aging and specify our lifespan? In C. elegans, Kim constructed the first full-genome worm DNA microarrays to generate gene expression networks, to design an mRNA tagging method that profiles expression in specific tissues, and to generate a cell lineage analyzer to extract expression levels from specific cells from confocal data stacks. Using the information generated from this technique he was able to show that aging is partly caused by a decline in a suite of developmental transcription factors. In middle-aged worms, expression of these key developmental regulators begins to decline. This leads to a cascade of changes in expression of genes in the skin and intestine, which leads to dysfunction and physiological breakdown of these two organ systems. Rescuing the expression levels of these aging transcription factors in old worms to levels found in the young state rejuvenates the aging transcriptome and increases worm lifespan. In humans, Dr. Kim found that the STAT3 and NFKB transcription factors are key drivers of aging in the kidney. Interestingly, inhibition of STAT3 activity with a drug leads to changes in gene expression in kidney cells (cultured in a dish) that resemble expression changes seen in young kidneys; that is, inhibition of STAT3 activity appears to rejuvenate the kidney’s aging transcriptome. His research has challenged entrenched theories in the field leading to a paradigm shift in how we understand youth and aging. Kim has received numerous awards for his work, including: the Ellison Medical Foundation Scholar, Searle Scholar, and Markey Scholar research fellowships as well as the Korean Ho-Am Prize in Medicine and the Glenn Prize in Aging. His numerous publications appear in journals including Nature, Science, and PLoS Genetics.