Young Chan Kim

He obtained a BSc in Biochemistry from Imperial College London, followed by medical degrees (BMBS, BMedSci, and MRes) at the University of Nottingham. After few years in clinical training, he came to Oxford to pursue a DPhil in Clinical Medicine.

His DPhil research focused on vaccine development against arthropod-borne viruses, supported by Innovate UK funding. For his performance during his doctorate at the Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM), he was awarded the highly prestigious NDM Graduate Student Prize 2020 (Overall Prize Winner).

In 2021, he was awarded an NIHR Oxford BRC grant for his postdoctoral research and was elected Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at Wolfson College. That same year, he joined the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) as a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, leading projects on enteric fever (typhoid and paratyphoid) and Q fever.

In 2022, he received a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship to establish his independent research programme on vaccines and therapeutics against arboviruses. Between 2022 and 2023, he also secured MRC HIC-VAC and MRC IAA grants to develop serological assays for enteric fever, as well as MLSTF and MRC IAA grants to initiate a novel vaccine programme against Chagas disease.

After successfully obtaining three SBRI Innovate UK awards in 2023, he began leading a team of postdoctoral researchers, research assistants, and students working on vaccines against plague, Q fever, and alphaviruses, while also overseeing Paratyphoid A and C. difficile human challenge studies with Prof Sir Andrew Pollard. In the same year, he was elected Research Fellow (RF) at Wolfson College.

Since 2024, he has served as Deputy Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Paediatrics and became Director of Graduate Studies in 2025, providing academic leadership and oversight of graduate student supervision. 

In 2025, he received additional MRC IAA and two BactiVac grants to evaluate viral-vectored and mRNA vaccines against Chagas disease, plague and Q-fever. He is also an Immunology lead (Co-I) on the Wellcome-funded “Correlates of Protection against Paratyphoid (COP-PT)” programme led by Prof Pollard working on the discovery of immunological correlates of protection. 

His research integrates translational vaccinology, controlled human infection models (CHIMs), and the discovery of immunological correlates of protection to accelerate vaccine development for neglected and emerging infectious diseases.

Any prospective students interested in pursuing a DPhil or Masters degree especially within the area of our innovative vaccine development or diagnostic tools against are encouraged to visit the website below.  

https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/dphil-paediatrics

My team is developing new vaccines against emerging infectious diseases, including alpha/flaviviruses, Plague, Q fever, and Chagas disease. 

Additionally, a significant emphasis of my team lies in identifying immunological markers against Enteric fever (typhoid and paratyphoid), C. difficile and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) suited for low-resource settings.

We are regularly recruiting for motivated clinician, postdocs, research assistants and can supervise DPhil and Master's students. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in joining the group or collaborating with us.