The main interest of Dr. Yongsoo Kim’s lab is to understand structural and functional organization of the mammalian brain using mice as an animal model. Particularly, Dr. Kim is interested in understanding the neural circuit basis of social behavior and its dysfunction in brain disorders. Social behavior is complex, requiring the integration of multiple sensory modalities, internal state information and memories of prior experience in order to generate highly nuanced responses to diverse environmental scenarios. Impairment of social behavior occurs often in many neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.

Thus, the Kim lab’s goal is to understand how local and brain-wide neural network operate to generate normal social behavior and how such processes are altered in pathological conditions. Toward that goal, Dr. Kim’s lab uses an automated 3D microscopy system called serial two-photon tomography to image whole mouse brains with cellular resolution. Dr. Kim used this imaging method with sophisticated data processing pipeline to systematically analyze target signals in the entire mouse brain. Previously, he used this method to perform cFos-based neural activity mapping, quantitative cell type mapping and brain-wide axonal projection mapping.

Currently, Dr. Kim’s lab is developing three-dimensional digital mouse brain atlases across different ages to establish a bioinformatics solution to register detected signals. Using the digital map, he is working on mapping oxytocin and oxytocin receptor-expressing neurons that play an essential role in generating and regulating social behavior. Moreover, he is also working on generating a detailed three-dimensional structure of microvaculature in the whole mouse brain.