Rate My Professor Kim Tieu

Dr. Kim Tieu is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences within the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at Florida International University. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and a Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan, where his doctoral research investigated propargylamines as potential treatments for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurological disorders. After practicing as a pharmacist, he pursued postdoctoral training at Columbia University to advance his PD expertise. In 2004, Dr. Tieu established his independent research laboratory at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Department of Environmental Medicine, securing funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to explore glia-neuron interactions, gene-environment interactions, and imbalanced mitochondrial fission/fusion in PD pathogenesis. In 2012, he was recruited to Plymouth University in England, where his lab received support from both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the UK Medical Research Council to study mitochondrial dynamics in PD. Since joining FIU in 2016, he leads the Parkinson’s Disease Research Laboratory, focusing on environmental toxicants, genetic mutations, and gene-environment interactions contributing to neuronal dysfunction and degeneration in PD, with the goal of developing disease-modifying therapies.

Dr. Tieu’s groundbreaking research has revealed novel functions of the mitochondrial fission protein Drp1 in regulating autophagy and neuroinflammation independently of mitochondrial dynamics, earning his laboratory the prestigious NIEHS Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary Environmental Health Research (RIVER) grant. His team has secured multiple NIEHS awards, including a grant from 2019 to 2027 for investigating toxicant-induced neurotoxicity mediated by glia-neuron and gene-environment interactions in PD. Notable publications include “Microglial exosomes facilitate α-synuclein transmission in Parkinson's disease” (Brain, 2020), “A partial Drp1 knockout improves autophagy flux independent of mitochondrial function” (Cell Death & Disease, 2024), “DRP1 induces neuroinflammation via transcriptional regulation of NF-κB” (2025), “Drp1 inhibition attenuates neurotoxicity and dopamine release deficits in vivo” (Nature Communications, 2014), and “PINK1 signalling rescues amyloid pathology and mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease” (Brain, 2017). Additionally, Dr. Tieu serves as Doctoral Program Director for Environmental & Occupational Health and contributes to programs like MARC U*STAR and Training in Environmental Neuroscience, significantly impacting the field of neurodegenerative disease research.