Sarah Kim, Ph.D.

Sarah Kim, PhD, is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Florida (UF) College of Pharmacy. Dr. Kim has the distinction of being the inaugural faculty hire for the UF Health Sciences AI initiative. Dr. Kim’s achievements demonstrate her commitment to advancing the field of pharmacometrics and her dedication to mentoring and teaching the next generation of scientists. Specifically, she received the 2025 UF Excellence Award for Assistant Professors, one of the university’s most esteemed early-career honors. She has also been named the recipient of the 2026 Darrell Abernethy Early Stage Investigator Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT).

She graduated summa cum laude from Hanyang University with a B.S. and M.S. in Applied Mathematics. She received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from Florida State University, with the honor of Dean’s Scholarship. During her postdoctoral training at the UF Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology, she was honored with ASCPT trainee awards: the David Goldstein Trainee Award in 2017 and the Presidential Trainee Awards in 2017 and 2018.

As a quantitative scientist with a background in Applied Mathematics and Pharmacometrics, she has established a successful research program centered on quantitative strategies in drug development. Since 2019, she has secured research funding as the Principal Investigator. Her research is highly collaborative, and she has worked closely with numerous researchers and institutions to advance the field of pharmacometrics.

As an academic scientist and mentor, she is committed to fostering the development of the next generation of scientists across disciplines. She has provided hands-on research supervision to Ph.D. and Pharm.D. students, as well as postdoctoral trainees, equipping them with the skills necessary to excel in cross-disciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and medical science fields. The quality and impact of her trainees have been recognized at both national and international levels.

Dr. Sarah Kim’s research program centers on model-informed, AI-powered drug development, comprising two major pillars.

1. Disease-drug-trial modeling and simulation to inform clinical trial design:

We are developing disease progression model-based clinical trial simulation tools to optimize trial designs evaluating potential therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, type 1 diabetes, and autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease. In parallel, we are building population pharmacokinetic/ pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models to inform experimental designs of anti-Mycobacterium Tuberculosis agents.

2. AI applications to enhance the use of imaging and other multimodal data in drug development:

We are developing AI-assisted analysis and informatics tools that accelerate and enrich feature extraction and quantification from imaging and other multimodal data, providing deeper insights into key drivers and sources of heterogeneity in disease progression for type 1 diabetes, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s disease. By incorporating explainable AI approaches, our research aims to support subgroup analyses and guide personalized therapeutic strategies.