Young Chan Kim

Dr Young Chan Kim is a translational vaccinologist whose research focuses on accelerating vaccine development for neglected and emerging infectious diseases. His work integrates translational vaccinology, controlled human infection models and the discovery of immunological correlates of protection.  

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 of clinical training, he moved to Oxford to undertake 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 DPhil 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 was awarded 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.

Following the award of three Innovate UK awards in 2023, Dr Kim 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 held graduate leadership roles within the Department of Paediatrics, first as Deputy Director of Graduate Studies and, from 2025, as Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) in 2025, providing academic leadership and oversight of graduate student supervision. 

In 2025, Dr Kim received additional MRC IAA funding 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, where he works on the discovery of immunological correlates of protection.

In 2026, he was named winner of the Early Career Researcher Award at the 20th Vaccine Congress (Elsevier), recognising an exceptional young researcher in the field of vaccines within the first five years of their career.

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 alphavirus/flavivirus, 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.

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER (VACCINE TEAM)

• Dr Sthefany Pagliari
• Dr Jessica Horton 
• Dr Emil Vergara
• Dr Henderson Zhu 

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER (ENTERIC TEAM)

• Dr Maria Noshi
• Dr Claudia Juarez Molina
• Dr Eirini Pantazi 
• Dr Susana Camara
• Dr Lizzy Jones

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

• Sonu Shrestha 
• Sarthak Sahoo
• Adrian Chan
• Allison MacDonald
• Mehreen Adnan
• Sidd Vishwakarma 

DPHIL STUDENTS

• Henderson Zhu (completed in 2024)
• Naina McCann (Current) 
• Margarete Paganotti Vicentine (Current)
• Hind Albalawi (Current)
• Steven Ji (Current)
• Oisin Hennigan (Current) 

MASTERS STUDENTS 

• George Eustace (completed in 2025) 
• Liusha Ma (completed in 2025)
• Daisy Anderton (Current) 

UNDERGRADUATE (FHS) / VISITING STUDENTS

• Lily Wei, Rufaro Tom (2023-2024)
• Hannah Ruck, Zoe de Zeeuw,  Nouha Kisra, Tashfia Bakth, Rose Gladman, Benjamin Liow, Sara Safaee, Ruby Croxton, Neve Whitehead, Giulio Taggart, Husaam Iqbal (2025-2026)

CLINICAL TRAINEE: 

• Rachel Atherton (ACF; 2021-2022)
• Lily Wei, Rufaro Tom (Y5 Medical Students; Current)