Research Interest
The long-term goal of Dr. Im’s research is to understand the mechanisms of T cell immunity in disease models having highly sustained antigen levels such as chronic viral infection, cancer, and autoimmune disease and to use this information to develop new immunotherapeutics for the treatment of the diseases.
A. T cell exhaustion during chronic viral infections and cancer
B. Immunotherapy for cancer
i) Therapeutic antibodies against new immunomodulatory proteins
ii) Adoptive T cell therapy using endogenous tumor-specific CD8 T cells
C. Biomarkers for immune-checkpoint blockades in cancer patients