Taeyoon Kim

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

The previous focus of my work has been on the development and use of computer simulations to address fundamental questions about the mechanics and dynamics of passive actin cytoskeleton. I developed a state-of-the-art agent-based model for actin cytoskeleton that computes macroscopic dynamics from realistic nano-scale representations of cytoskeletal constituents. Using the model, I have shown how the mechanical and dynamic properties of the cytoskeletal components at a microscopic scale determine the rheological behaviors of the actin cytoskeleton at a macroscopic scale. These studies have revealed key mechanistic features of actin cytoskeleton that current experimental approaches have been unable to illuminate. My lab has recently focused on elucidating mechanisms of actomyosin contractility using the computational models. We incorporated molecular motors in the previous model with reflection of realistic mechanochemistry of myosin II motors. We have shown how forces are generated in disorganized actomyosin structures such as cortex-like networks and bundles and how actomyosin contractility helps cells sense the rigidity of surrounding environments. Research areas in which my lab is interested for a longer term are various biological processes at cellular and tissue scales. Currently, we are developing models for cell migration, mechanotransduction, and early-stage vasculogenesis.

Selected Publications:

Kim, T., Hwang, W., and Kamm, R.D. (2009). Computational analysis of a cross-linked actin network. Experimental Mechanics, 49, 91-104. PMID: 23601624.

Kim, T., Hwang, W., Lee, H., and Kamm, R.D. (2009). Computational analysis of viscoelastic properties of crosslinked actin networks. PLoS Computational Biology, 5(7), e1000439. PMCID: PMC2703781.

Kim, T., Hwang, W., and Kamm, R.D. (2011). Dynamic role of cross-linking proteins in actin rheology. Biophysical Journal, 101(7), 1597-1603. PMCID: PMC3183755.

Borau, C.*, Kim, T.*, Bidone, T., García-Aznar J.M., and Kamm, R.D. (2012). Dynamic mechanisms of cell rigidity sensing: insights from a computational model of actomyosin networks. PLoS One, 7(11), e49174. PMCID: PMC3489786.

Kim, T., Gardel, M.L., and Munro, E. (2014). Determinants of fluidlike behavior and effective viscosity in cross-linked actin networks. Biophysical Journal, 106(3), 526-534. PMCID: PMC3944977.

Bidone, T.C., Kim, T., Deriu, M.A., Morbiducci, U., and Kamm, R.D. (2015) Multiscale impact of nucleotides and cations on the conformational equilibrium, elasticity and rheology of actin filaments and crosslinked networks. Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, online first.

Kim, T. (2015). Determinants of contractile forces generated in disorganized actomyosin bundles. Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, 14(2), 345-355. PMID: 25103419.

Jung, W., Murrell, M.P., and Kim, T. (2015). F-actin cross-linking enhances stability of force generation in disordered actomyosin networks. Computational Particle Mechanics, online first.