About

Sang Y. Kim is a Clinical Associate in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery / Pharmacology at Penn Dental Medicine. His professional focus includes clinical practice and research within the fields of oral and maxillofacial surgery and pharmacology. The page indicates his association with Penn Dental Medicine, located at the University of Pennsylvania, and highlights his role within the faculty, contributing to the academic and clinical missions of the institution.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Dentistry
• Materials science
• Chemistry
• Physics

Selected publications

• Naringenin ameliorates swine pulpitis by modulating immune response

  BMC Oral Health · 2026-04-13

  articleOpen access

  Preserving dental pulp vitality is crucial for maintaining the physiological function of the tooth. Naringenin (Nar), known for its immunomodulatory properties, has shown pharmacological effects on various inflammatory diseases. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic potential of Nar in treating Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (P.g-LPS)-induced pulpitis in a swine model and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying its therapeutic efficacy. Swine premolars with P.g-LPS-induced pulpitis were divided into four groups: sham, hydrogel, iRoot BP PLUS, and Nar hydrogel. Treatment outcomes were evaluated by assessing neutrophil infiltration, dentin-like tissue regeneration, and coronal pulp tissue preservation using histological and immunohistochemical techniques. To further examine potential cellular responses, the effects of Nar were studied in human dental pulp fibroblasts (hDPFs), human peripheral blood-derived neutrophils (hNeu.), and differentiated HL-60 cells (dHL-60). Surface markers were analyzed using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), cytokine levels were measured by ELISA, and mineralization was assessed using alkaline phosphatase and Alizarin Red S staining. Neutrophil phagocytosis, bactericidal activity, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and translocation of transcription factor EB (TFEB)-mediated lysosomal activity were evaluated. Statistical analyses included Shapiro-Wilk test and one-way ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis test with appropriate post hoc comparisons. The sham group showed severe pulp tissue necrosis and an intense inflammatory response. Hydrogel alone exhibited limited therapeutic effects. Both Nar hydrogel and iRoot BP PLUS promoted dentin-like tissue formation; however, Nar hydrogel reduced inflammatory infiltration and preserved a greater proportion of coronal pulp tissue. In vitro, Nar reduced inflammatory cytokine secretion from hDPFs and neutrophils and improved P.g-LPS-impaired mineralization capacity in hDPFs. Nar also enhanced the phagocytic and bactericidal activities of dHL-60 cells, accompanied by controlled ROS elevation and increased TFEB-mediated lysosomal activity. Nar demonstrates therapeutic potential for pulpitis management by modulating inflammation and promoting dentin-like tissue regeneration. Its efficacy likely stems from the fine-tuning of inflammatory responses. These findings suggest that Nar may represent a potential biological alternative to conventional pulp capping materials for vital pulp therapy.

  PublisherDOI

• Preserving the Natural Tooth Versus Extraction and Implant Placement: An Evidence-Based Approach

  2026-01-01

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• News from the GBAR experiment: Improved positron accumulation in a buffer gas trap with a silicon carbide remoderator

  Journal of Physics Conference Series · 2025-11-01

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The aim of the GBAR experiment is to measure the gravitational acceleration of antihydrogen by observing the free fall of ultracold anti-atoms. The experiment is installed at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator/ELENA facility. Positrons are produced by a low energy (9 MeV) linear electron accelerator and captured in a modified Surko (buffer gas) trap. We have recently implemented a silicon carbide-based trapping scheme that replaces the routinely used nitrogen gas with a high quality silicon carbide single crystal in the first phase of the trap. The new setup has been providing stable and efficient positron trapping for more than a year. After a short accumulation in the buffer gas trap, the particles are transported to a high-field (5 T) Penning-Malmberg trap, where a high number of pulses can be collected in a deep potential well. We discuss the performance of the improved positron line and the present status of the experiment.

  PublisherDOI

• Differentiation of iPSC for potential cell-based regenerative endodontic therapy

  Dental Materials · 2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Endodontic microsurgery: Current trends and future outlook

  Translational dental research. · 2025-04-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Magicity versus Superfluidity around <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mrow><mml:mn>28</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:mrow></mml:math> viewed from the Study of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">F</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mrow><mml:mn>30</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:mrow></mml:math>

  Physical Review Letters · 2024-08-23 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  The neutron-rich unbound fluorine isotope ^{30}F_{21} has been observed for the first time by measuring its neutron decay at the SAMURAI spectrometer (RIBF, RIKEN) in the quasifree proton knockout reaction of ^{31}Ne nuclei at 235 MeV/nucleon. The mass and thus one-neutron-separation energy of ^{30}F has been determined to be S_{n}=-472±58(stat)±33(sys) keV from the measurement of its invariant-mass spectrum. The absence of a sharp drop in S_{n}(^{30}F) shows that the "magic" N=20 shell gap is not restored close to ^{28}O, which is in agreement with our shell-model calculations that predict a near degeneracy between the neutron d and fp orbitals, with the 1p_{3/2} and 1p_{1/2} orbitals becoming more bound than the 0f_{7/2} one. This degeneracy and reordering of orbitals has two potential consequences: ^{28}O behaves like a strongly superfluid nucleus with neutron pairs scattering across shells, and both ^{29,31}F appear to be good two-neutron halo-nucleus candidates.

  PublisherDOI

• First observation of 28O

  Nature · 2023-08-30 · 59 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Subjecting a physical system to extreme conditions is one of the means often used to obtain a better understanding and deeper insight into its organization and structure. In the case of the atomic nucleus, one such approach is to investigate isotopes that have very different neutron-to-proton ( N / Z ) ratios than in stable nuclei. Light, neutron-rich isotopes exhibit the most asymmetric N / Z ratios and those lying beyond the limits of binding, which undergo spontaneous neutron emission and exist only as very short-lived resonances (about 10 −21 s), provide the most stringent tests of modern nuclear-structure theories. Here we report on the first observation of 28 O and 27 O through their decay into 24 O and four and three neutrons, respectively. The 28 O nucleus is of particular interest as, with the Z = 8 and N = 20 magic numbers 1,2 , it is expected in the standard shell-model picture of nuclear structure to be one of a relatively small number of so-called ‘doubly magic’ nuclei. Both 27 O and 28 O were found to exist as narrow, low-lying resonances and their decay energies are compared here to the results of sophisticated theoretical modelling, including a large-scale shell-model calculation and a newly developed statistical approach. In both cases, the underlying nuclear interactions were derived from effective field theories of quantum chromodynamics. Finally, it is shown that the cross-section for the production of 28 O from a 29 F beam is consistent with it not exhibiting a closed N = 20 shell structure.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Production of antihydrogen atoms by 6 keV antiprotons through a positronium cloud

  The European Physical Journal C · 2023-11-06 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We report on the first production of an antihydrogen beam by charge exchange of 6.1 keV antiprotons with a cloud of positronium in the GBAR experiment at CERN. The 100 keV antiproton beam delivered by the AD/ELENA facility was further decelerated with a pulsed drift tube. A 9 MeV electron beam from a linear accelerator produced a low energy positron beam. The positrons were accumulated in a set of two Penning–Malmberg traps. The positronium target cloud resulted from the conversion of the positrons extracted from the traps. The antiproton beam was steered onto this positronium cloud to produce the antiatoms. We observe an excess over background indicating antihydrogen production with a significance of 3–4 standard deviations.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Publisher Correction: First observation of 28O

  Nature · 2023-11-07 · 4 citations

  erratumOpen access

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  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• OP002/#213 Is cervical excision before radical hysterectomy associated with better oncologic outcomes for patients with early stage cervical carcinoma ?

  International Journal of Gynecological Cancer · 2021-11-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01DE005605

  NIH · $1.1M · 1990

• NIH Grant K04DE000121

  NIH · $165k · 1988

Frequent coauthors

• N. L. Achouri

  Normandie Université

  22 shared

• J. Gibelin

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  22 shared

• N. A. Orr

  Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire de Caen

  22 shared

• F. Delaunay

  École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Caen

  22 shared

• F. M. Marqués

  20 shared

• Mintsai Liu

  19 shared

• Margaret R. Byers

  University of Washington

  16 shared

• Karin J. Heyeraas

  16 shared

Education

• D.D.S., Ph.D., Endodontics

  Columbia University

Awards & honors

• Leonard Davis Institute Summer Research Fellowship