I am a senior hardware engineer at Luca Medical Systems, a medical device start-up company that develops autonomous platforms for clinical radiation therapy systems.
I lead hardware design and optimization tasks by combining mechanical engineering, nuclear radiation physics, and optical systems design principles.
I enjoy tackling translational projects - I am currently working in close collaboration with researchers at Stanford University to bring research prototypes into the market.
This website is an archive of my past research, in which I pursued with passion during my academic years until 2018. They were geared towards challenging the status quo in popular cancer detection and therapy techniques.
Highlights
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Published 19 journal articles (9 first authorships)
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Received NIH funded fellowship on microfluidic molecular imaging (2-years)
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Received research grant as PI on radiation therapy detector
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Mentored over ten interns and undergraduate research assistants
Publications
Jung, K.O., Kim, T.J., Yu, J.H., Rhee, S., Zhao, W., Ha, B., Red-Horse, K., Gambhir, S.S., Pratx, G., "Whole-body tracking of single cells by positron emission tomography," Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2020, link
*Featured as News and Views in Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2020, link
Kim, T.J., Cheng, K., Zhang, H., Liu, S., Skinner, L., Xing, L., "Second window near-infrared dosimeter (NIR2D) system for radiation dosimetry," Physics in Medicine and Biology, 2020, link
Kim, T.J., Wang, Q., Shelor, M., Pratx, G., "Single-cell radioluminescence microscopy with two-fold higher sensitivity using dual scintillator configuration," PLOS ONE, 2020, link
Sengupta, D., Mongersun, A., Kim, T.J., Eyben, R., Abbyad, P., Pratx, G., "Multiplexed single-cell measurements of FDG uptake and lactate release using droplet microfluidics," Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment, 2019. link
Kim, T.J., Jung, K.O., Fahimian, B., Pratx, G., “Flexible Dosimeter for High Resolution 1-D Dosimetry”, Physics in Medicine and Biology, 2018. link
Sengupta, D., Kim, T.J., Almasi, S., Miller, S., Marton, Z., Nagarkar, V., Pratx, G., “Development and characterization of a scintillating cell imaging dish for radioluminescence microscopy”, The Analyst, 2018. link
Kim, T.J., Tuerkcan S., Pratx, G., "Modular Low-Light Microscope for Imaging Cellular Bioluminescence and Radioluminescence," Nature Protocols, 2017. link
*Featured as Protocol of the week on April, 2017
Galliana, M.*, Kim, T.J.*, Shelor, M., Vasquez, J., Mongersun, A., Kim, M., Tang, S., Abbyad, P., Pratx, G., "Toward a droplet-based single-cell radiometric assay," Analytical Chemistry, Vol 89, No. 12, pp. 6472–6481, 2017. link
*=co-first author
Kiru, L., Kim, T.J., Shen, B., Chin F.T., Pratx, G., "Single-cell imaging using radioluminescence microscopy reveals unexpected binding target for [¹⁸F]HFB," Molecular Imaging and Biology, 2017. link
Wang, Q., Sengupta, D., Kim, T.J., Pratx, G., "In silico optimization of radioluminescence microscopy," Journal of Biophotonics, 2017. link

Wang, Q., Sengupta, D., Kim, T.J., Pratx, G., "Performance Evaluation of 18F Radioluminescence Microscopy Using Computational Simulation," Medical Physics, Vol. 44, No. 5, pp. 1782–1795, 2017. link
Yu, O.Y., Kim, T.J., Pratx, G., "Evaluation of a BGO-based PET System for Single Cell Tracking Performance by Simulation and Phantom Studies," Molecular Imaging, Vol. 15, pp. 1-8, 2016. link
Kim, T.J., Tuerkcan S., Ceballos, A., Pratx, G., "A Modular Platform for Low-Light Microscopy," Biomedical Optics Express, Vol. 6, No. 11, pp. 4585-4598, 2015. link
Lee, K.S., Kim, T.J., Pratx, G., "Single-Cell Tracking with PET using a Novel Trajectory Reconstruction Algorithm," IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 994-1003, 2014. link
Kim, T.J., Kim, M.S., Hann, S.Y., Trejo, J., Hidrovo, C.H., “Thermal Characterization of Microheated Microchannels with Spatially Resolved Two-Color Fluorescence Thermometry,” Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 115-125, 2014. link
Chhabra, A., Kanapuram, R., Kim, T.J., Geng, J., daSilva, A., Bielawski, C.W., Hidrovo, C.H., “Humidity Effects on the Wetting Characteristics of Poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) During a Lower Critical Solution Temperature,” Langmuir, 2013. link
Kim, T.J. and Hidrovo, C.H., “Pressure and Partial Wetting Effects on Superhydrophobic Friction Reduction in Microchannel Flow,” Physics of Fluids 35(11), 2012. link
Kim, T.J., Kanapuram, R., Chhabra, A. and Hidrovo, C.H., “Thermo‐Wetting and Friction Reduction Characterization of Microtextured Superhydrophobic Surfaces,” Journal of Fluids Engineering 134, 2012. link
Song, S.H., Lee C.G., Kim, T.J., Jun, S.C., Jung, H.I., “A Rapid and Simple Fabrication Method for 3‐D Circular Microfluidic Channel Using a Metal Wire Removal Process,” Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 533‐540, 2009. link
Kim, T.J., Kim, S.J., Jung, H.I., “Physical Stimulation of Mammalian Cells Using Micro‐bead Impact Within a Microfluidic Environment to Enhance Growth Rate,” Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 131‐138, 2009. link
Peer-reviewed Conference Proceedings
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Kim, T.J. and Hidrovo, C.H., “Stability Analysis of Cassie-Baxter State under Pressure Driven Flow,” 8th ASME International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels, and Minichannels, Montreal, Canada, August 1-5, 2010.
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Kim, T.J. and Hidrovo, C.H., “Superhydrophobic Friction Reduction Microtextured Surfaces,” 2nd ASME Micro/Nanoscale Heat & Mass Transfer International Conference, Shanghai, China, December 18-21, 2009.