Tae-Wan Kim, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology, Department of Pathology, Columbia University Medical Center

Originally from Seoul, Dr. Kim earned his Ph.D. at Rutgers University in the 1990s. He began studying Alzheimer’s after a family member was diagnosed with the disease, and continued his postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School. This was where he discovered a mutation in a critical Alzheimer’s disease-associated gene that causes excessive amyloid and calcium production.

 

After moving to Columbia in 2000, he continued to focus on understanding the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, with emphasis on the identification and validation of new therapeutic targets. His lab currently is involved in three major studies.

Funded Research

Project Description Researchers Funding
Oligomer Collaborative Projects

A collaboration of members of the Research Consortium, a member of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Science Advisory Board and non-Cure Alzheimer’s Fund-affiliated researchers hypothesizes that an abnormal increase in levels of synaptic Abeta and, particularly, Abeta oligomers may lead to synaptic dysfunction, cognitive decline and eventually dementia. This highly innovative collaborative project will address how Abeta oligomers are formed and which types detrimentally impact synaptic dysfunction and neuronal survival in the brain.
2006 to 2008

$1,550,000

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.
Berman DE, Dall’Armi C, Voronov SV, McIntire LBJ, Zhang H, Moore AZ, Staniszewski A, Arancio O, Kim T, Di Paolo G., Oligomeric amyloid-beta peptide disrupts phosphatidylinositol-4, 5-bisphosphate metabolism., Nature Neuroscience, May 2008