Dr. Im is currently Professor in Department of Orthopaedics and Director of Integrative Research Institute for Regenerative Biomedical Engineering, Dongguk University, Goyang, Korea.
Dr. Im received his M.D in Seoul National University in 1988 and finished his training as an orthopaedic surgeon at Seoul National University Hospital in 1993. He then obtained his Ph.D. degree in Korea University in 1999. Dr. Im began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Dept. of Orthopaedics, Hallym University Hospital in 1996 and moved to Dept. of Orthopaedics, Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital in 2006 and has been working in the institution until now.
Dr. Im was a Visiting Scholar to Tubingen University, Germany, to Bern University, Switzerland, and to Kyushu University, Japan. He also spent one and half years (2000-2001) as a Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, USA.
Dr. Im has been working on the field of osteoarthritis, stem cell and cartilage regeneration of since 1996. He has published 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers in international journals and holds 18 national and international patents. He is an associate editor or editorial board member of several international peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Im has been also performing multidisciplinary research in cooperation with scientist and engineers of various fields to translate the research product into clinical application. He has participated in global academic activity in the field of musculoskeletal research during last two decades, and possesses numerous connections with researchers overseas.
Prof. Im has expertise in several area of osteoarthritis including research on cell-based regeneration, molecular investigation to delve into the etiology of OA and clinical aspect including nonsurgical and surgical management.