The major effort of my current postdoctoral work is an investigation of the diversity of the cis-promoter regions of 185/333 gene family, which are expressed in the immune cells of the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuatus. This large gene family of encodes a diverse family of proteins that are produced in response to immune challenge. The aim of this research is to understand how 185/333 gene expression is regulated, and to identify the binding sites on the promoters for regulatory transcription factors. I am also working on expressing recombinant 185/333 proteins in bacterial cells with the aim of elucidating their functions and to determine whether their molecular diversity is important in host defense.

International Marine Biotechnology Association (IMBA)

The Korean Society of Bioinformatics (KSBI)

International Society of Microbial Ecology (ISME)

Young-Ok Kim, Bo-Hye Nam, Sang-Jun Lee, JaeHun Cheong (2006) Molecular characterization and expression analysis of two hepcidin genes from Black Rockfish Sebastes schlegeli. 10th International Congress of ISDCI, Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Young-Ok Kim, Han-Woo Kim, Bo-Hye Nam, Jeung-Ho Lee, Kyung-Kil Kim, Sang-Jun Lee (2004) Isolation and characterization of an acid glucose phosphatase from Citrobacter braakii. International symposium on Microbial Ecology ISME-10, Cancun, Mexico.

Young-Ok Kim, Jeung-Ho Lee, Kyung-Kil Kim, Sang-Jun Lee, Bong-Sok Kim, Bo-Hye Nam (2003) Isolation and characterization of a novel phytase from Citrobacter braakii. Marine Biotechnology Conference 2003, Chiba, Japan.

Young-Ok Kim, Sang-Jun Lee, Bong-Seok Kim, Bo-Hye Nam, Jeung-Ho Lee, Kyung-Kil Kim (2003) Tissue-specific Expressed Sequence Tags from the olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, 9th International Congress of ISDCI, St Andrews, Scotland

Young-Ok Kim, Han-Woo Kim, Jeung-Ho Lee, Kyung-Kil Kim (2002) Purification and characterization of a novel phytase from Citrobacter braakii YH-15. 9th International Symposium on the Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms, Gyeongju, Korea.

Young-Ok Kim, Han-Woo Kim, Jung-Ho Lee, Kyung-Kil Kim, Sang-Jun Lee (2006) Molecular cloning of the phytase gene from Citrobacter braakii and its expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Biotechnology Letters, 28: 33-38

Young-Ok Kim, Eun-Mi Park. Bo-Hye Nam, Young-Ju Jee, In-Soo Kong, Sang-Jun Lee (2006) EST-based identification of genes expressed in the spleen and head kidney of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus, Korean J. Genetics, 28(1) 9-15

Young-Ok Kim, Suhee Hong, Bo-Hye Nam, Jeong-Ho Lee, Kyung-Kil Kim, Sang-Jun Lee (2005) Molecular characterization and expression analysis of two hepcidin genes from olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus, Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 69(7) 1411-1414

Jung-Hoon Yoon, Jung-Kee Lee, Young-Ok Kim, Tae-Kwang Oh (2005) Photobacterium lipolyticum sp. Nov., a bacterium with lipolytic activity isolated from the Yellow Sea in Korea, Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol., 55: 335-339

B. -C. Oh, W.-C. Choi, S. Park, Y.-O. Kim, T.-K. Oh (2004) Biochemical properties and substrate specificities of alkaline and histidine acid phytases, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 63: 362-372

Sang-Jun Lee, Suhee Hong, Kyong-Jin An, Young-Ok Kim (2004) Survey of the expression pattern and immuno stimulatory effect of DNA vaccine using ß-galactosidase reporter system in olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus), J. Fish. Sci. Tech., 7(2) 70-75

Young-Ok Kim, Han-Woo Kim, Jeung-Ho Lee, Kyung-Kil Kim (2003) Cloning and Expression of Escherichia coli K13 phytase Gene (appA13) Isolated from seawater, J. Fish. Sci. Tech., 6(1): 20-26.

Han-Woo Kim, Young-Ok Kim, Jeung-Ho Lee, Kyung-Kil Kim (2003) Isolation and characterization of a phytase with improved properties from Citrobacter brakii, Biotechnology Letters, 25: 1231-1234

Jeong-Ho Lee, Suhee Hong, Han-Woo Kim, Young-Ok Kim, Kyung-Kil Kim (2003) GFP gene expression in transfected rainbow trout fibroblast cell line RT-2 using a polycationic reagent (superfect), J. Fish Pathol., 16(2): 69-73.

Nam-Chul Ha, Byung-Chul Oh, Sejong Shin, Hyun-Ju Kim, Tae-Kwang Oh, Young-Ok Kim, Kwan-Yong Choi, and Byung-Ha Oh (2000) Crystal structure of a novel thermostable phytase in partially and fully calcium-loaded state, Nat. Struct. Biol. 7, 147-153.

Sunitha. K., Young-Ok Kim, Jung-Kee Lee, Tae-Kwang Oh (2000) Statistical optimization of expression and induction condition to enhance phytase production by recombinant E. coli. Biochemical Engineering Journal. 5: 51-56