Professor Im Joo Rhyu, director of the Korea University Graduate Program for Convergence & Translational Biomedicine and faculty member in the Department of Anatomy, recently led a study investigating the medical and artistic significance of the red, blood cell-like forms in Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. Collaborating with Professors Hyunmi Park, Dae Hyun Kim, and Hwamin Lee from Korea University College of Medicine (KUCM) and Sungkyunkwan University Master's student Daeun Kwak, the research team delved into medical literature from Klimt’s fin de siècle era—the turn of the 19th into the 20th century—to uncover why these striking red discs found their way into the artist’s most iconic work.

Identifying viruses associated with red tide can help researchers forecast the development of blooms and better understand environmental factors that can cause blooms to terminate. The study marks an initial step toward exploring viruses as biocontrol agents for red tide.