Dr. Sunyoung Kim

CEO and Founder | Chosen Diagnostics, Inc.
Professor of Genetics and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | LSU Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine
Profiled: May 2017

⏮ REWIND

Following an academic career spanning two continents and multiple research topics, Sunyoung Kim, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at LSU Health Sciences Center, took on a position she never anticipated — corporate executive. In addition to her academic role, Kim founded Chosen Diagnostics Inc., which seeks to improve and personalize patient care through products such as a biomarker test that offers earlier detection of a severe bowel disease called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) that affects 6,000 infants in the United States each year.

Early clinical trials for the test were highly encouraging, and the results had generated a wave of excitement in the medical community.

Kim’s accomplishment has raked in awards on the local level.

In November, Chosen Diagnostics won the $25,000 grand prize at the 2016 BioChallenge Startup Competition, an annual event organized by the New Orleans BioInnovation Center to identify and support local life sciences startups. She is the first woman to win the award.

On the heels of that success, the company took top honors in the 2017 JEDCO Challenge, held this past March during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. The win included a $60,000 prize package. Judging panels weren’t the only ones who recognized the company’s merit — in both competitions, Chosen Diagnostics won the “crowd favorite” prizes as well.

⏭ FAST-FORWARD

Kim continued to win pitch competitions, taking home two international pitch awards in 2020: Equalize Startups, which targets women academic inventors, and another from Houston-based Ignite Healthcare Network, which recognized the company for finding “an innovative solution, a strong CEO, and a real addressable market.”

“After those wins, I stopped with the pitch competitions,” noted Kim. “In 2020, the FDA gave us a breakthrough device designation, which means we can’t sell the test yet, but they have looked at it and agree that it is first in class and best in class test and will work with us to get it through approvals.”

Kim added that her company had started running a clinical study both before and through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re pulling everything together now,” she said. “It should put us in good readiness for regulatory approval.”

In addition to all the pitch money, Chosen Diagnostics has raised $4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation.

While in 2017, the company consisted of just Kim and a part-time employee, today it has grown to five people and contracts with outside organizations as needed since testing is going on at more than one site. They hope to receive FDA approval in the next two years.

“I think a lot about the mothers and families and kids in our state,” said Kim. “Louisiana has a lot of poor maternal health outcomes, not just for moms but for babies. There’s a lot of premature babies. We have a tool here that will be able to provide testing earlier here than anywhere else in country. It will be a huge medical win, as well as a win for the general population as we’re building this test to be able to be used anywhere, even maternal care deserts.”