Ho Min Kim

Timeline

1. 1995–2005

   Biological science degrees at KAIST

   He studies biological science at KAIST, earning a B.S. in 1999, an M.S. in 2001 and a Ph.D. in 2005.

2. 2005–2011

   Postdoctoral fellowships at KAIST and UCSF

   From 2005 to 2007, he holds postdoctoral fellowships with Ook Joon Yoo at KAIST's Biomedical Research Center and with Jie-oh Lee in KAIST's Department of Chemistry. He then moves to the Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is a postdoctoral fellow with Yifan Cheng from 2007 to 2011.

3. 2011

   Founding the Disease Molecule Biochemistry Lab

   In 2011, he joins the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering at KAIST and sets up the Disease Molecule Biochemistry Lab. Using X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM along with biochemical and cell-biological methods, he studies protein complexes that act in immune response and synaptogenesis.

4. 2018

   Chief investigator at IBS

   In December 2018, he is appointed chief investigator and launches the Protein Communication group in the Center for Biomolecular and Cellular Structure at the Institute for Basic Science in Daejeon. In 2018, he also receives the Asan Award in Medicine for Young Medical Scientists and is named to the National R&D Excellence 100 by the Minister of Science and ICT.

5. 2023–2025

   Sketching proteins in virtual reality

   In 2023, he is a coauthor of the UIST '23 poster Sketching proteins with bare hands in VR, a system from KAIST's SketchLab that lets synthetic biologists author the 3D structures of proteins by hand for AI-based protein design. In 2025, a poster he coauthors on interactive protein design in virtual reality wins an Outstanding Poster Award at the Summer conference of the Korean In silico bioDesign and Discovery Society.

6. November 2025

   Antibodies designed with RFdiffusion

   Nature publishes Atomically accurate de novo design of antibodies with RFdiffusion in November 2025, with him among the coauthors from KAIST's Department of Biological Sciences, alongside David Baker. The work combines computational protein design with a fine-tuned RFdiffusion network and yeast display screening to generate antibody variable heavy chains, single-chain variable fragments and full antibodies that bind user-specified epitopes with atomic-level precision.

7. August 2026

   The K-Fold biomolecular AI model

   In August 2026, KAIST unveils K-Fold, a biomolecular AI model that predicts protein structures and how drug candidates bind to them. He is one of the Department of Biological Sciences professors, with Oh Byung-ha and Lee Gyu-ri, responsible for building and validating the protein data, while groups at KAIST's Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI develop the model.

8. As of October 2026

   Professor at KAIST

   He is a professor in KAIST's Department of Biological Science, where he leads the Lab for Integrated Protein Design & Structure, and an adjunct professor in KAIST's AX department. His research interests include AI-based protein design and drug development, and his AX faculty entry gives AI model development for biomolecular design and autonomous labs among his research areas.