Hee Kee Kim

About Hee Kee Kim

I am an assistant professor in the department of Pain Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). My main research interests include the patho-mechanisms of cancer neuropathic pain and the development of new medicines. Neuropathic pain is one of chronic pain and originates from a malfunction of the nervous system. Light touch can cause intense pain and small temperature changes may feel much larger. Many chemotherapeutic medicines (cisplatin, oxaliplatin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, vincristine, vinblastine, bortezomb, and thalidomide) produce neuropathic pain, which is a dose-limiting side effect. This pain is not treated with normal pain killers such as acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen. Now many doctors have prescribed antidepressant and anticonvulsant. However, they have modest analgesic effects. Therefore, the new medicine is needed. I have published many articles in the pain research and trained other scientists to do pain behavioral tests and make animal pain models including chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain rat model, spinal nerve ligation model, chronic constriction injury model, capsaicin-induced pain model, and TNBS-induced chronic visceral pain model. In the MDACC, I have studied the role of free radical and cyclic AMP in the chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain animal models and evaluated the analgesic effects of new candidates for cancer pain. I have mentored more than 10 trainees by doing research with students (Ph.D. candidate, M.D. and Ph.D. candidate, high school students) and post-docs to develop research plan, knowledge, and skills.

Experience

1. Assistant Professor

   UT MD Anderson

   Dec 2015 — Present · Houston, TX, US

Education

• Kangwon National University

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Immunology, Department of Pharmacy

  1992 — 1999

• Kangwon National University

  Bachelor's degree, Department of Pharmacy

  1983 — 1987

• Kangwon National University

  Master's degree, Department of Pharmacy

  1990 — 1992