Seung Kim

Seung K. Kim, MD, PhD, KM Mulberry Professor, Department of Developmental Biology; Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Gerontology & Metabolism; Professor (by courtesy), Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine 

Research Description: Dr. Kim’s diabetes research program over the past quarter century has made important contributions to understanding pancreatic islet development and biology in several models, including fruit flies, mice, pigs and humans. He has innovated methods for studying pancreas and islet biology in these models, and discovered cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms governing growth, cell fate and development and function of endocrine and exocrine cells in mouse and human pancreas. His collaborations in these areas are extensive and productive. Dr. Kim leads or has led multi- investigator research and training programs, including in the NIDDK Human Islet Resource Network (HIRN), and the Accelerating Medicines Partnership-T2D (AMP-T2D) consortium, and has served as SDRC Director since 2016.

Selected relevant publications (Stanford DRC members in BOLD):

  1. Tellez K, Hang Y, Gu X, Chang CA, Stein RW, Kim SK. In vivo studies of glucagon secretion by human islets transplanted in mice. Nat Metab. 2020 Jun;2(6):547-557. PMID: 32694729; PMCID: PMC7739959. 

  2. Camunas-Soler J, Dai XQ, Hang Y, Bautista A, Lyon J, Suzuki K, Kim SK, Quake SR, MacDonald PE. Patch-Seq Links Single-Cell Transcriptomes to Human Islet Dysfunction in Diabetes. Cell Metab. 2020 May 5;31(5):1017-1031.e4. PMID: 32302527; PMCID: PMC7398125. 

  3. Kim S, Whitener RL, Peiris H, Gu X, Chang CA, Lam JY, Camunas-Soler J, Park I, Bevacqua RJ, Tellez K, Quake SR, Lakey JRT, Bottino R, Ross PJ, Kim SK. Molecular and genetic regulation of pig pancreatic islet cell development. Development. 2020 Mar 30;147(6):dev186213. PMID: 32108026; PMCID: PMC7132804. 

  4. Arda HE, Tsai J, Rosli YR, Giresi P, Bottino R, Greenleaf WJ, Chang HY, Kim SK. A Chromatin Basis for Cell Lineage and Disease Risk in the Human Pancreas. Cell Syst. 2018 Sep 26;7(3):310-322.e4. PMID: 30145115; PMCID: PMC6347013. 

  5. M. Enge, Arda, HE, Mignardi, M, Beausang, J, Bottino, R, S.K. Kim, and S.R. Quake. 2017. Single cell transcriptome analysis of human pancreas reveals transcriptional signatures of aging and somatic mutation patterns. Cell 171:321-330. PMID: 28965763; PMCID: PMC6047899. 

  6. Rankin AE, Fox E, Chisholm T, Lantz N, Rajan A, Phillips W, Griffin E, Harper J, Suhr C, Tan M, Wang J, Yang A, Kim ES, Ankrah NKA, Chakraborty P, Lam ACK, Laws ME, Lee J, Park KK, Wesel E, Covert PH, Kockel L, Park S, Kim SK. Simplified homology-assisted CRISPR for gene editing in Drosophila. G3 (Bethesda). 2024 Feb 7;14(2):jkad277. doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkad277. PMID: 38058125; PMCID: PMC10849607. 

  7. Wang G, Chiou J, Zeng C, Miller M, Matta I, Han JY, Kadakia N, Okino ML, Beebe E, Mallick M, Camunas-Soler J, Dos Santos T, Dai XQ, Ellis C, Hang Y, Kim SK, MacDonald PE, Kandeel FR, Preissl S, Gaulton KJ, Sander M. Integrating genetics with single-cell multiomic measurements across disease states identifies mechanisms of beta cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. Nat Genet. 2023 Jun;55(6):984-994. doi: 10.1038/s41588-023-01397-9. Epub 2023 May 25. PMID: 37231096; PMCID: PMC10550816. 

  8. Tsao DD, Chang KR, Kockel L, Park S, Kim SK. A genetic strategy to measure insulin signaling regulation and physiology in Drosophila. PLoS Genet. 2023 Feb 2;19(2):e1010619. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010619. PMID: 36730473; PMCID: PMC9928101. 

  9. Marquez-Curtis LA, Dai XQ, Hang Y, Lam JY, Lyon J, Manning Fox JE, McGann LE, MacDonald PE, Kim SK, Elliott JAW. Cryopreservation and post-thaw characterization of dissociated human islet cells. PLoS One. 2022 Jan 26;17(1):e0263005. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263005. PMID: 35081145; PMCID: PMC8791532. 

  10. Kim SK, Tsao DD, Suh GSB, Miguel-Aliaga I. Discovering signaling mechanisms governing metabolism and metabolic diseases with Drosophila. Cell Metab. 2021 Jul 6;33(7):1279-1292. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2021.05.018. Epub 2021 Jun 16. PMID: 34139200; PMCID: PMC8612010. 

  11. Kaestner KH, Campbell-Thompson M, Dor Y, Gill RG, Glaser B, Kim SK, Sander M, Stabler C, Stewart AF, Powers AC. What is a β cell? - Chapter I in the Human Islet Research Network (HIRN) review series. Mol Metab. 2021 Nov;53:101323. doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2021.101323. Epub 2021 Aug 17. PMID: 34416394; PMCID: PMC8452767. 

  12. Bevacqua RJ, Dai X, Lam JY, Gu X, Friedlander MSH, Tellez K, Miguel-Escalada I, Bonàs-Guarch S, Atla G, Zhao W, Kim SH, Dominguez AA, Qi LS, Ferrer J, MacDonald PE, Kim SK. CRISPR-based genome editing in primary human pancreatic islet cells. Nat Commun. 2021 Apr 23;12(1):2397. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22651-w. PMID: 33893274; PMCID: PMC8065166. 

  13. Bevacqua RJ, Lam JY, Peiris H, Whitener RL, Kim S, Gu X, Friedlander MSH, Kim SK. SIX2 and SIX3 coordinately regulate functional maturity and fate of human pancreatic β cells. Genes Dev. 2021 Feb 1;35(3-4):234-249. doi: 10.1101/gad.342378.120. Epub 2021 Jan 14. PMID: 33446570; PMCID: PMC7849364. 

  14. Wu CT, Hilgendorf KI, Bevacqua RJ, Hang Y, Demeter J, Kim SK, Jackson PK. Discovery of ciliary G protein-coupled receptors regulating pancreatic islet insulin and glucagon secretion. Genes Dev. 2021 Sep 1;35(17-18):1243-1255. PMID: 34385262; PMCID: PMC8415323. 

  15. Friedlander MSH, Nguyen VM, Kim SK, Bevacqua RJ. Pancreatic Pseudoislets: An Organoid Archetype for Metabolism Research. Diabetes. 2021 May;70(5):1051-1060. PMID: 33947722; PMCID: PMC8343609. 

  16. Chang CA, Bhagchandani P, Poyser J, Velasco BJ, Zhao W, Kwon HS, Meyer E, Shizuru JA, Kim SK. Curative islet and hematopoietic cell transplantation in diabetic mice without toxic bone marrow conditioning. Cell Rep. 2022 Nov 8;41(6):111615. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111615. PMID: 36351397. 

  17. Bhagchandani P, Chang CA, Zhao W, Ghila L, Herrera PL, Chera S, Kim SK. Islet cell replacement and transplantation immunology in a mouse strain with inducible diabetes. Sci Rep. 2022 May 31;12(1):9033. PMID: 35641781; PMCID: PMC9156753. 

  18. Qian MF, Bevacqua RJ, Coykendall VM, Liu X, Zhao W, Chang CA, Gu X, Dai XQ, MacDonald PE, Kim SK. HNF1α maintains pancreatic α and β cell functions in primary human islets. JCI Insight. 2023 Dec 22;8(24):e170884. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.170884. PMID: 37943614; PMCID: PMC10807710. 

  19. Bevacqua RJ, Zhao W, Merheb E, Kim SH, Marson A, Gloyn AL, Kim SK. Multiplexed CRISPR gene editing in primary human islet cells with Cas9 ribonucleoprotein. iScience. 2023 Dec 8. PMID: 38205242; PMCID: PMC10777115. 

  20. Rottner AK, Ye Y, Navarro-Guerrero E, Rajesh V, Pollner A, Bevacqua RJ, Yang J, Spigelman AF, Baronio R, Bautista A, Thomsen SK, Lyon J, Nawaz S, Smith N, Wesolowska-Andersen A, Fox JEM, Sun H, Kim SK, Ebner D, MacDonald PE, Gloyn AL. A genome-wide CRISPR screen identifies CALCOCO2 as a regulator of beta cell function influencing type 2 diabetes risk. Nat Genet. 2023 Jan;55(1):54-65. PMID: 36543916; PMCID: PMC9839450. 

  21. Coykendall VMN, Qian MF, Tellez K, Bautista A, Bevacqua RJ, Gu X, Hang Y, Neukam M, Zhao W, Chang C, MacDonald PE, Kim SK. RFX6 Maintains Gene Expression and Function of Adult Human Islet α-Cells. Diabetes. 2024 Mar 1;73(3):448-460. doi: 10.2337/db23-0483. PMID: 38064570; PMCID: PMC10882151. 

  22. Wu X, Chen PI, Whitener RL, MacDougall MS, Coykendall VMN, Yan H, Kim YB, Harper W, Pathak S, Iliopoulou BP, Hestor A, Saunders DC, Spears E, Sévigny J, Maahs DM, Basina M, Sharp SA, Gloyn AL, Powers AC, Kim SK, Jensen KP, Meyer EH. CD39 delineates chimeric antigen receptor regulatory T cell subsets with distinct cytotoxic & regulatory functions against human islets. Front Immunol. 2024 Jun 28;15:1415102. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1415102. PMID: 39007132; PMCID: PMC11239501. 

  23. Kattner N, Hang Y, Krentz NAJ, Russell LA, Palmer M, Flaxman C, Plett N, Coulthard R, Al-Selwi Y, Dyson N, Honkanen-Scott M, Kim SK, Tiniakos D, Klöppel G, Richardson SJ, Shaw JAM. Identification of a vimentin-expressing α-cell phenotype in CF and normal pancreas. J Endocrinol. 2025 Feb 17;264(3):e240190. doi: 10.1530/JOE-24-0190. PMID: 39836539; PMCID: PMC11850051.