Alfred Hyoungju Kim, MD, PhD

Dr. Kim is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, where he directs the Lupus Center (founded in 2013). He also leads the Biobanking and Phenotyping Core within the NIH/NIAMS P30-funded Rheumatic Diseases Research Resource-based Center and is a Faculty Scholar at the Institute of Public Health. In addition, he serves as the Associate Program Director for the Rheumatology Fellowship Program at Washington University and is Chief Medical Officer at Kypha, Inc., an innate immune diagnostics company. 

He received his BA in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and his MD and PhD from Drexel University College of Medicine. Dr. Kim completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine, where he participated in the Physician-Scientist Training Program and performed post-doctoral research with Dr. Andrey Shaw on the pathologic contributions of B cells to podocyte dysfunction. 

His research group focuses on translational and clinical investigations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), including examining the utility of complement activation products as both biomarkers of SLE disease activity and drivers of disease progression, evaluating state-of-the-art noninvasive imaging platforms (such as photoacoustics) to detect lupus nephritis without the need for biopsy, and addressing healthcare disparities in SLE by investigating the factors that contribute to these gaps and how they affect patient outcomes. He also founded the COVID-19 Vaccine Responses in Patients with Autoimmune Diseases (COVaRiPAD) study, which assesses the strength, quality, durability, evolution, and safety of COVID-19 vaccine responses in immunosuppressed patients. 

Dr. Kim serves as Chair of the Impact Advisory Council, a member of the Executive Council, and a member of the Board of Directors at the Rheumatology Research Foundation. He is a core member of the OMERACT SLE Working Group and co-chair of the Biomarker Roadmap Committee. Previously, he served on the Strategic Planning Task Force for the American College of Rheumatology, on the Scientific Advisory Council at the Rheumatology Research Foundation, on the Clinical and Scientific Committee of the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance, and on the Early Career Investigators Subcommittee within the Committee of Research of the American College of Rheumatology.