Jeremiah Kim
Graduate Student
About Jeremiah
Growing up in the north suburbs of Chicago, Jeremiah ventured slightly south to obtain a BA/MS in Chemistry at Northwestern University where he studied under Emily Weiss and Andrew Lee. As a Wildcat, he investigated how to develop Quantum Dot sensors of pH and acetylation.
After graduating in 2019, he was drawn slightly more south to the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and pivoted towards an immuno-engineering path due to a desire to solve real world problems.
In the Esser-Kahn lab, he works to discover novel adjuvants that will be able to decrease inflammation and increase the efficacy of vaccines.
In his free time, he loves to hang out with friends and eat!
Education
BS/MS Chemistry, Northwestern University (2019)
Advisors: Prof. Emily Weiss and Prof. Andrew Lee
Thesis: "A Nanoparticle Probe Utilizing Electrostatic Potential for the Dynamic Sensing of pH and Acetylation"
Favorite Quote
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
-Jojen Reed
Scientific Hero
Rintaro Okabe
Favorite Paper
2018 NIAID Strategic Plan for Research on Vaccine Adjuvants.
If you could be a piece of lab equipment, what would you be?
"Multidrop Combi"
Jeremiah's Research
Jeremiah leads a high throughput screening project identifying small molecule immunomodulators that can selectively enhance or inhibit specific immunological pathways in combination with known pattern receptor agonists. These will be used as novel adjuvants that aid vaccines, whether by decreasing inflammation or by increasing the efficacy of vaccines. In particular, he is looking to test the best immunomodulators so that we can create new and improved vaccines for the flu and for COVID-19. Enhancing compounds from his screen could be used for other applications such as cancer immunotherapy or autoimmunity.
Lab Publications
Weiss, A. M., Lopez, M. A., Rosenberger, M. G., Kim, J. Y., Shen, J., Chen, Q., … Esser-Kahn, A. P. (2024). Identification of CDK4/6 Inhibitors as Small Molecule NLRP3 Inflammasome Activators that Facilitate IL-1β Secretion and T Cell Adjuvanticity. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 67(17), 14974–14985. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c00516
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Jia, S., Kim, J., Esser-Kahn, A. P., & Deak, P. (2024). High-throughput screening identification of novel immunomodulatory combinations for the generation of tolerogenic dendritic cells. Frontiers in Medicine, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2023.1298424
Ajit, J., Chen, Q., Ung, T., Rosenberger, M., Kim, J., Solanki, A., … Esser, A. P. (2024). β-glucan induced trained immunity enhances antibody levels in a vaccination model in mice. Preprint at BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.11.588932
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Rosenberger, M. G., Kim, J., & Esser-Kahn, A. (2023). Immunomodulators identified via high-throughput screening enhance control of vaccine adjuvanticity. The Journal of Immunology, 210(1_Supplement), 145.23–145.23. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.210.supp.145.23
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Esser-Kahn, A. P., Rosenberger, M. G., & Kim, J. (2023). Modulating Innate Immune Responses for Improved Vaccine Tolerability and Durability. The Journal of Immunology, 210(1_Supplement), 223.09–223.09. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.210.supp.223.09
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Weiss, A. M., Rosenberger, M. G., Kim, J. Y., Lopez, M. A., Rowan, S. J., & Esser-Kahn, A. P. (2023). High Throughput Screening Identifies CDK Inhibitors as Inflammasome-Activating Vaccine Adjuvants. The Journal of Immunology, 210(1_Supplement), 145.24–145.24. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.210.supp.145.24
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Tang, Y., Kim, J., IP, C. K., Azadeh Bahmani, Chen, Q., Rosenberger, M. G., … Ferguson, A. L. (2023). Data-driven discovery of innate immunomodulators via machine learning-guided high throughput screening. Chemical Science, 14(44). https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sc03613h
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Kim, J. Y., Rosenberger, M. G., Rutledge, N. S., & Esser-Kahn, A. P. (2023). Next-Generation Adjuvants: Applying Engineering Methods to Create and Evaluate Novel Immunological Responses. Pharmaceutics, 15(6), 1687.
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4923/15/6/1687
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Kim, J. Y., Rosenberger, M. G., Chen, S., Ip, C. K., Bahmani, A., Chen, Q., ... & Esser-Kahn, A. P. (2023). Discovery of New States of Immunomodulation for Vaccine Adjuvants via High Throughput Screening: Expanding Innate Responses to PRRs. ACS Central Science, 9(3), 427-439. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acscentsci.2c01351