Contact Information
Department of Physics
1110 West Green Street
Urbana, IL 61801-3003
Research Interests
Application of single-molecule microscopy to study gene expression in vitro and in vivo; and DNA supercoiling and transcription; spatial organization of gene expression inside a single bacterial cell
Research Description
Dr Kim's group studies the physical principles underlying molecular interactions and functions inside cells, focusing on how gene expression machines work together in the cellular context. Dr Kim's group developed new methodologies based on molecular, optical, and computational approaches and ask critical molecule-level questions that matter for living cells.
Awards and Honors
Searle Scholar (2020)
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Physics
Assistant Professor, Biomedical and Translational Sciences
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Recent Publications
Echeverry, J., Wang, Y. H., & Kim, S. (2026). Single-Molecule Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (smFISH) for RNA Localization Relative to a DNA Locus in Bacteria. In Methods in Molecular Biology (pp. 131-149). (Methods in Molecular Biology; Vol. 2995). Humana Press Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-5027-1_9
Kim, S., Zhang, Y., Ju, X., Hassan, A., Wang, Y. H., Liu, S., & Kim, S. (2026). Spatial and genetic constraints govern transcription–translation coupling and mRNA degradation in bacteria. Nature Microbiology, 11(7), 1920-1933. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-026-02374-8
Dilrangi, K. H., Aretakis, J. R., Vaidya, K., Al-Husini, N., Muthunayake, N. S., Kim, S., & Schrader, J. M. (2025). Rif-seq reveals Caulobacter crescentus mRNA decay is globally coordinated with transcription and translation. Cell Reports, 44(12), Article 116691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116691
Ghosal, A., Wang, Y. H., Nguyen, N., Troyer, L., & Kim, S. (2025). Practical considerations for accurate estimation of diffusion parameters from single-particle tracking in living cells. Journal of Chemical Physics, 163(13), Article 134202. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0284172
Govande, A. A., Matibag, B. D., Ünlü, I., Wolf, E. J., Sargen, M. R., Ramsey, B., Kim, S., Helaine, S., Corrêa, I. R., & Lim, H. C. (2025). OLD amputates the anticodon arm of tRNAs during P2-Lambda interference. Nucleic acids research, 53(17), Article gkaf874. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf874