Staff Physician, Surgical Service and Chief of Orthopedic Surgery, SFVAMC
Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, UCSF

Email: hubert.kim@ucsf.edu

Dr. Kim was the first researcher to report an association between fractures of the knee joint and a form of programmed cell death known as apoptosis. His subsequent research has demonstrated that inhibiting enzymes critical to the process of apoptosis can decrease cartilage degeneration after joint injuries in animals. Ongoing studies will determine whether treatment with these types of enzyme inhibitors can decrease the chances of developing arthritis for patients who have sustained severe knee injuries. A second research front in Dr. Kim's lab is of critical importance to veterans: repairing nerve damage from bullet and bomb wounds, which frequently cause long-term functional damage to injured limbs when damaged nerve segments grow back improperly or not at all. Dr. Kim is conducting basic research on the use of biodegradable polymer nanofibers as a scaffold for repairing and regenerating nerve fibers in damaged tissue. This research could result in repair methods that are superior to current conventional techniques.

Skittone LK, Liu X, Tseng A, Kim HT. 2008. Matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression and promoter/enhancer activity in skeletal muscle atrophy. J Orthop Res 26(3):357-63.

Kim HT, Teng MS, Dang AC. 2008. Chondrocyte apoptosis: implications for osteochondral allograft transplantation. Clin Orthop Relat Res 466(8):1819-25.