Yeji Kim

Yeji Kim is a PhD candidate whose research draws upon materials chemistry, electrochemistry, and bioelectronics to design novel magnetic approaches for neuromodulation. As a MathWorks Fellow, she will pursue new strategies for remote modulation of cell signaling mediated by magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs)—an innovative approach that offers minimally invasive manipulation of physiology and behavior. Specifically, Yeji is designing a nanomaterial capable of transducing magnetic fields into heat, and the heat per particle reaches 3000-times higher than conventional magnetothermal MNPs for remote activation of heat-sensitive ion channels in neurons. Early results for these functionalized MNPs are extremely promising: they have the record of the magneto- thermal transduction properties of the nanoscale materials, which are sufficient to drive neural activity in the presence of a magnetic field. Her next aim is to and combine this property with an ion channel targeting method. MATLAB has played a critical role at all stages of this work, enabling her to interface hardware and software for neuromodulation tool development and to interpret the bio-signals. Yeji’s research offers valuable contributions to neuromodulation and has the potential to support the exploration of numerous challenges and unanswered questions in neuroscience.