Kyoung-Han Kim, PhD, is a scientist and director of the Functional Genetics and Metabolism Laboratory at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He is also an assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Kim obtained his BSc from the Department of Life Science at Sogang University in the Republic of Korea, and his PhD from the Department of Physiology, University of Toronto with Dr. Peter H. Backx. He pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, under the direction of Dr. Chi-Chung Hui. His prior research focused on the role of the Iroquois transcription factor (Irx) family in the cardiovascular system and energy metabolism. He demonstrated the roles of Irx3 and Irx5 in the developing and adult heart, showing that Irx3 establishes rapid electrical propagation in the ventricular conduction system, while Irx5 regulates cardiac contractility. Moreover, he revealed that these two novel genetic factors, Irx3 and Irx5, are functional targets of the non-coding FTO variants associated with obesity. In 2017, he established his research laboratory at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Dr. Kim has served as a reviewer for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the CIHR Institute Community Support (ICS) Program, and the Research Grants Council (RGC) as well as Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) of Hong Kong, China. He has received various awards, including the McDonald Scholarship as the highest-ranked National New Investigator from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (2021), the Keystone Symposia Future of Science Fund scholarship (2016) and the Andrew Sass-Kortsak Award from the Hospital for Sick Children (2014). Dr. Kim’s research program is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the J. P. Bickell Foundation for Medical Research, and uOttawa Translational Research Grant. Dr. Kim’s research program focuses on the genetic and metabolic regulation of heart development, function and disease, with an emphasis on obesity, diabetes and heart failure. He is interested in the molecular function and mechanism of Irx transcription factors in the heart, which are not only implicated in organ development, but also in energy homeostasis regulation. The team is also investigating metabolism of the heart and its communications with other core metabolic tissues/organs (e.g., adipose tissue and liver). Using genetically engineered mice as primary models, the research programme integrates physiology with molecular and systems biology approaches to address fundamental questions about cardiac metabolism in heart function and diseases.