Go to Polygence Scholars page
Joo Kim's cover illustration
Polygence Scholar2024
Joo Kim's profile

Joo Kim

Class of 2025Los Angeles, California

About

Projects

  • "Can human embryos benefit from endosymbiotic relationships?" with mentor Elena (June 27, 2024)

Joo's Symposium Presentation

Project Portfolio

Can human embryos benefit from endosymbiotic relationships?

Started Feb. 12, 2024

Abstract or project description

This documentary sets out to uncover an area of biology that is important, yet comparatively understudied and unknown to the vast majority of mainstream media. Endosymbiosis is a mutually beneficial interspecific relationship in which one of the partners in the relationship lives inside the other. These symbiotic relationships can occur between an embryo and a foreign microorganism, for example between a salamander and an algae or a lice and a specific strain of bacterium. We are interested in conveying and translate the data surrounding this rather understudied and low publicity topic to the masses. With this documentary, we seek to properly understand the current research regarding the dynamic relationship between the Yellow Spotted Salamender and the algae "Oophilia Amblystomatis".