Pediatrics
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Hyunkyung Claire Kim
Postdoctoral Scholar, Endocrinology and Metabolism
BioHyunkyung Claire Kim is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Translational Genomics of Diabetes Lab led by Dr. Anna Gloyn. She received her PhD in Genetics from the University of Chicago, where she developed a statistical method to disentangle shared and trait-specific genetic architecture across complex diseases using large-scale biobank data. Prior to her doctoral training, she worked at Massachusetts General Hospital, studying the genetic subtypes and heterogeneity of type 2 diabetes through data-driven clustering approaches.
She is interested in the translational genomics of diabetes, including integrating human genetics with clinical data to uncover disease mechanisms and advance precision medicine. Her long-term research interests include developing computational methods to understand how genetic, molecular, and environmental factors jointly shape metabolic disease risk, disease heterogeneity, and progression. -
Yunkyeong Lee
Postdoctoral Scholar, Endocrinology and Metabolism
BioYun is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Translational Genomics of Diabetes Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Anna Gloyn. Since joining the lab in August 2022, she has been investigating type 2 diabetes (T2D) susceptible genes and their molecular mechanisms in pancreatic β-cell dysfunction and the development of T2D. Her primary focus is on how T2D effector transcripts alter autophagy/mitophagy pathways in human pancreatic β-cells, contributing to β-cell failure, mitochondrial dysfunction, and T2D pathology. She also investigated the impact of genetic mutations underlying neonatal diabetes using CRISPR HDR knockin genome editing in human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) models and their derivatives.
During her PhD, she explored the role of an epigenetic regulator and its molecular machinery in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), now termed metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). In parallel, she studied the interplay between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-mediated unfolded protein response (UPR) signalling and autophagy, and examined how these processes are modulated by bioactive plant extracts in various cellular contexts.
She is particularly interested in exploring inter-organ communication, such as pancreas-liver crosstalk, and how these interactions influence systemic metabolism and contribute to the onset and progression of T2D, along with its complications. Her long-term research goal is to advance our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving T2D and to identify novel therapeutic targets and strategies. -
Ngan (Phoebe) Tran
Postdoctoral Scholar, Endocrinology and Metabolism
BioNgan (Phoebe) Tran, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Translational Genomics of Diabetes Lab led by Dr. Anna Gloyn. She received her PhD in Clinical and Translational Science from Mayo Clinic, where she studied how mitochondrial genetics and dysfunction contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. Her doctoral research combined short- and novel long-read sequencing, clinical phenotyping, and functional approaches to investigate early-onset Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, mitochondrial quality control, and mitochondrial variation across healthy brain aging.
She is broadly interested in how genetic variation shapes mitochondrial function and how these effects translate into cellular and disease phenotypes. In the Gloyn Lab, she is extending this interest into metabolic disease by integrating human genetics with functional and metabolic studies. Her long-term research interests lie at the intersection of mitochondrial biology, functional genomics, and translational medicine, with the goal of connecting human genetic discoveries to mechanisms that may ultimately inform therapeutic strategies.
