Taekyung Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Dr. Kim graduated from Korea University in South Korea with a bachelor degree in biology. During graduate study at Rutgers University (Robert Wood Johnson Medical School), he studied the molecular mechanisms and regulation of eukaryotic gene expression under the supervision of Dr. Danny Reinberg (HHMI, currently at NYU).

After obtaining a PhD degree in Biochemistry, he continued his research career in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Greenberg (Harvard Medical School) as a postdoctoral fellow, studying how neuronal activity controls gene expression in neurons to mediate synapse remodeling and plasticity.

Dr. Kim joined the faculty in the Department of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern in 2010.

Undergraduate

Korea University (1993), Biology

Graduate School

Rutgers University (2000), Biomedical Studies

• Activity-regulated gene expression and epigenetic program in brain
• The function of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in brain

Featured Publications

An Intrinsic Transcriptional Program Underlying Synaptic Scaling during Activity Suppression.

Schaukowitch K, Reese AL, Kim SK, Kilaru G, Joo JY, Kavalali ET, Kim TK Cell Rep 2017 Feb 18 6 1512-1526

Stimulus-specific combinatorial functionality of neuronal c-fos enhancers.

Joo JY, Schaukowitch K, Farbiak L, Kilaru G, Kim TK Nat. Neurosci. 2015 Nov

Architectural and Functional Commonalities between Enhancers and Promoters.

Kim TK, Shiekhattar R Cell 2015 Aug 162 5 948-59

Enhancer RNA Facilitates NELF Release from Immediate Early Genes.

Schaukowitch K, Joo JY, Liu X, Watts JK, Martinez C, Kim TK Mol. Cell 2014 Sep

Transcriptional Architecture and Chromatin Landscape of the Core Circadian Clock in Mammals.

Koike N, Yoo SH, Huang HC, Kumar V, Lee C, Kim TK, Takahashi JS Science 2012 Aug

Widespread transcription at neuronal activity-regulated enhancers.

Kim TK, Hemberg M, Gray JM, Costa AM, Bear DM, Wu J, Harmin DA, Laptewicz M, Barbara-Haley K, Kuersten S, Markenscoff-Papadimitriou E, Kuhl D, Bito H, Worley PF, Kreiman G, Greenberg ME Nature 2010 May 465 7295 182-7

Genome-wide analysis of MEF2 transcriptional program reveals synaptic target genes and neuronal activity-dependent polyadenylation site selection.

Flavell SW*, Kim TK*, Gray JM, Harmin DA, Hemberg M, Hong EJ, Markenscoff-Papadimitriou E, Bear DM, Greenberg ME. (* Equal contribution) Neuron 2008 60 6 1022-38

Genomic Views of Transcriptional Enhancers: Essential Determinants of Cellular Identity and Activity-Dependent Responses in the CNS.

Gray JM, Kim TK, West AE, Nord AS, Markenscoff-Papadimitriou E, Lomvardas S J. Neurosci. 2015 Oct 35 41 13819-26

Enhancer RNAs: A Class of Long Noncoding RNAs Synthesized at Enhancers.

Kim TK, Hemberg M, Gray JM Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 2015 7 1

SET7/9 methylation of the pluripotency factor LIN28A is a nucleolar localization mechanism that blocks let-7 biogenesis in human ESCs.

Kim SK, Lee H, Han K, Kim SC, Choi Y, Park SW, Bak G, Lee Y, Choi JK, Kim TK, Han YM, Lee D Cell Stem Cell 2014 Dec 15 6 735-49

• The Klingenstein Fellowship Award
  (2012)
• The Welch Foundation
  (2012)
• Whitehall foundation
  (2011)
• Regent’s Research Scholar Award, UT Southwestern
  (2010)
• Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research
  (2003)
• Lefler Fellowship, Harvard Medical School
  (2002)
• Deans Award for Excellence in Studies, Korea University
  (1993)