The Kim Lab decodes the molecular circuits and cellular synapses that govern sensation and inflammation — using live-cell imaging, genetic perturbation, and chemo-, opto-, and toxogenetics. We are based at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health.
We are a research group focused on the neural circuits that talk to the immune system — and the cellular synapses where nerve and immune cell meet. We ask how these circuits sense injury and infection, and how they can be tuned to control inflammation without drugs.
The lab was founded by Dr. Brian S. Kim and is home to a mix of postdoctoral fellows, scientists, and physician-scientists working across neuroscience, immunology, and bioelectronic medicine. We value rigor, curiosity, and a healthy skepticism of our own hypotheses.
How does inflammation imprint different kinds of sensations and reflexes? We use live imaging and optogenetics to watch this happen in real time.
The nervous system can reflexively control inflammation. We study how sensation itself is a central orchestrator of health and disease.
We build simple, testable models of inflammation and irritation to identify novel modes of interorgan communication. We use chemical and viral tracing strategies, coupled to spatial transcriptomics.