Hae Kyung Im
Hae Kyung Im is an Associate Professor in the Section of Genetic Medicine and the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. She trained in Physics at the Instituto Balseiro, a center of excellence Science and Engineering in Argentina, and later earned her PhD in Statistics from the University of Chicago. After exploring research in manufacturing and consulting in information security and finance, she found her calling in statistical genetics.
She develops computational methods to make sense of large amounts of genomic and other high-dimensional data to make discoveries that can be translated into improving human health. To translate GWAS findings into actionable target genes, she developed and implemented an approach that uses genotype data to predict gene expression levels. The resulting system, a first-in-class gene-based association method called PrediXcan, expanded the test unit from genetic variants to more biologically meaningful units such as genes. Her publication of PrediXcan inspired similar approaches, creating a new class of methods now known as TWAS.
She has a strong track record of developing and sharing impactful methods with the community. Many research groups in academia, pharmaceutical companies, and biotech start-ups use her tools to interpret GWAS results and identify actionable disease targets. Committed to open science, she releases preprints of manuscripts and makes tools publicly available early on.