Wonil Kim

Wonil Kim, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer at Aston Sci., Inc., where he leads the development of mRNA-based cancer vaccines using the proprietary AI-driven Th-Vac® platform. He is currently focused on AST-1138, an mRNA vaccine candidate for KRAS-mutant tumors that uses both tumor-associated and tumor-specific neoantigens to stimulate MHC Class II-restricted CD4+ T cell immunity against oncogenic KRAS. Dr. Kim has over twenty years of experience in RAS biology, beginning with his doctoral research at the University of Minnesota, where he studied the interaction between mutant RAS (NRASG12V) and the MLL-AF9 fusion gene in acute myeloid leukemia. This work established the foundation for his current focus on RAS-targeted immunotherapy. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School and the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (NIH), and later served as a Staff Scientist in Oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Kim has also led R&D at GeneOne Life Science and Cyrus Therapeutics, with expertise in preclinical drug discovery, nucleotide-based therapeutics, and biopharmaceutical R&D leadership.