News
2024
[Jun 1] We have three new members this summer! Aishani Ghosal is a new postdoc working on theoretical biophysics. Juan Echeverry is an incoming graduate student starting early! and Zach LaFrankie is an undergraduate student in the summer REU program.
[Apr 23] Yu-Huan received “People’s choice” Poster Award in the 5th Annual Illinois Biophysics Graduate Research and Networking Symposium. Congrats!
2023
[Jun 15] Eowyn Acres joins us this summer via NSF REU program. Also, Michael Tiran (entering senior in Physics) starts his undergraduate research in our group. Welcome!
[Jan 15] Nguyen Nguyen (Physics) starts rotation in our group. Welcome!
2022
[Aug 21] Henry Amir (Physics) starts rotation in our group. Welcome!
[Aug 18] We hosted a 2-day experimental bootcamp on super-resolution microscopy to incoming Biophysics graduate students. Kudos to Laura and Yu-Huan for leading the bootcamp.
[Jun 1] Luke Villaraman is a summer undergraduate student, joining us via NSF REU program. Welcome, Luke!
[May 31] Laura gave a short talk at the International Physics of Living Systems meeting in Montpellier, France.
[May 8] Maggie Liu is this year’s recipient of the Laura B. Eisentein Award, which recognizes exceptional women physics undergraduate students. Congratulations, Maggie!
[Apr 19] This Spring semester, Laura and Seunghyeon presented their works at the MicroERA symposium and at the Illinois Biophysics Grad Symposium. Way to go Laura and Seunghyeon!
[Jan 20] Sangjin is appointed as a Center for Advanced Study Fellow in the year 2022-23.
2021
[Nov 16] A theoretical model for the interplay between DNA supercoiling and transcription is published in PRL. It was a great collaboration with Purba Chatterjee and Nigel Goldenfeld. Link for news.
[Nov 1] Sangjin gave seminars at the U. Texas Rio Grande Valley (Physics), UIUC (MatSE), and Seoul National University (Chemistry).
[Oct 20] Ran Yang (MCB) and Brooke Ramsey (Biophysics) rotate in our group. Welcome!
[Oct 19] Sangjin gave a seminar at Emory University. Thank you Dr. Laura Finzi for the invitation.
[Aug 22] Armine Dingilian from the Biophysics program will do her first rotation in our group. Welcome, Armine!
[Aug 1] The lab has been awarded a 5-year grant from NIH/NIGMS! The funding will support our effort to develop novel single-molecule imaging tools for bacterial transcription, translation, and mRNA degradation. We are looking for graduate students and postdocs interested in molecular biology.
[Jun 1] Maggie Liu and Arsh Khetan (seniors in Physics) and Yu-Huan Wang (graduate student in Physics) joined the group. Kyra Birkenfeld from Stephen F. Austin State University is with us through the NSF REU program. Welcome!
[May 10] Kavya received Robert E. Hetrick Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award. Kavya is going to the University of Chicago for graduate school. Tessa received Philip J. and Betty M. Anthony Undergraduate Summer Research Award. The award will support her summer research in the lab. Congratulations, Kavya and Tessa!
2020
[Oct 23] We have three rotation students from Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology this semester. Welcome, Yuncong Geng, Timothy Tan, and Gloria Lau!
[Oct 12] Sangjin gave a virtual seminar in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Wayne State University. She will give seminars at Northwestern University (Department of Microbiology) and Colorado State University in November.
[Oct 1] Welcome Seunghyeon Kim from Seoul National University!
[Aug 1] This summer, we enjoyed working with Andrew Maytin, who was with us (virtually) via the NSF REU program. The group met in person at the Quad to say good-bye to Zach Wang, who’s starting his graduate work at UCSD!
[May 5] Two founding members of the Kim lab received the Physics Undergraduate Awards. Kavya received Jeremiah D. Sullivan Undergraduate Research Award to support her summer research project in the lab. Zach received Philip J. and Betty M. Anthony Undergraduate Research Prize. Congratulations!
[Apr 20] Sangjin was selected as one of the 2020 Searle Scholars (News). We cannot wait to get together and properly celebrate!
[Mar 27] A number of good news from students: Albur will join UIUC Physics for his Ph.D. Zach will become a graduate student at UCSD. Kavya received James Scholar Preble Research Scholarship, a prestigious recognition to outstanding James Scholars involved in undergraduate research. Congratulations to all!
[Mar 14] WFH started due to COVID-19. Sangjin’s talks at Emory Physics and ASM 2020 are canceled.
[Mar 5] Sangjin gave a talk at the virtual APS meeting.
[Feb 12] Sangjin gave a colloquium in the department.
[Feb 1] Ethan Muchnik (a senior student in University High School) starts a theoretical work on gene expression.
[Jan 1] Laura Troyer starts rotation in the lab. Welcome!
2019
[Dec 10] Sangjin’s review article in Bioessays is online.
[Nov 20] Zidong Ma joins the lab from MechSE. Welcome!
[Sep 21] We hosted a CPLC seminar speaker, Jared Schrader (Wayne State University), who gave an amazing talk on liquid-phase condensates in bacteria and mRNA degradation.
[Sep 20] Press coverage together with the Golding lab’s work.
[Sep 19] Sangjin’s paper on RNA polymerase group dynamics is published in Cell. Check it out in our publications page!
[Sep 13] Sangjin gave a seminar in the Department of Biochemistry at UIUC on long-distance interactions between RNA polymerases.
[Jul 10] Kim lab participates in 2019 CPLC summer school, leading a theme on “Bacterial Gene Expression in Space, Time and Numbers” with our neighbor, Golding lab. During this 1-week program, we will provide hands-on training on live cell super-resolution imaging to six students coming from other Universities. Let the STORMing begin!!
[Jul 8] Zach Wang (a rising senior in MCB and Physics) joined the lab. Zach came with a background in computational biology and is in charge of computational problems in the lab! Welcome, Zach!
[May 10] Kavya Vaidya (a rising junior in Physics) joined the lab. Kavya mastered basic skills in microbiology and is working on single-particle tracking in live E. coli cells using our STORM microscope. Welcome, Kavya!
[Mar 31] The lab website is launched.