Keunwoo Ryu, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor Endowed Title Southwestern Medical Foundation Scholar in Biomedical Research Schools Medical School | Graduate School Departments Cell Biology Graduate Programs Cell and Molecular Biology Biography Keun received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he trained in the laboratory of W. Lee Kraus and studied how NAD⁺ metabolism regulates transcription during cell differentiation. He then completed postdoctoral training with Craig Thompson at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. There, he discovered that cells generate metabolically distinct mitochondrial subpopulations through higher-order enzyme assembly and mitochondrial fusion and fission dynamics, enabling the coordination of competing metabolic pathways. During his training, he was a Hunter Douglas Breast Cancer Research Fellow and received the Basic Research Innovation Award and the Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize. In 2025, Keun joined the Department of Cell Biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His laboratory investigates how metabolism is organized within cells by uncovering the principles through which enzyme self-assembly and organelle interactions spatially control intracellular metabolism. This work seeks to reveal how metabolic compartmentalization enables cellular adaptation. Education Graduate School (2017) Research Interest Cancer Gene expression Metabolism Mitochondria Neurodegeneration Organelle dynamics Publications Featured Publications Emerging roles and regulatory mechanisms involved in glutamine metabolism. Ryu KW, Fung TS, Thompson CB, Trends Biochem Sci 2026 May Engineering mtDNA deletions by reconstituting end joining in human mitochondria. Fu Y, Land M, Kavlashvili T, Cui R, Kim M, DeBitetto E, Lieber T, Ryu KW, Choi E, Masilionis I, Saha R, Takizawa M, Baker D, Tigano M, Lareau CA, Reznik E, Sharma R, Chaligne R, Thompson CB, Pe'er D, Sfeir A, Cell 2025 May 188 10 2778-2793.e21 Arginine: at the crossroads of nitrogen metabolism. Fung TS, Ryu KW, Thompson CB, EMBO J 2025 Mar 44 5 1275-1293 Cellular ATP demand creates metabolically distinct subpopulations of mitochondria. Ryu KW, Fung TS, Baker DC, Saoi M, Park J, Febres-Aldana CA, Aly RG, Cui R, Sharma A, Fu Y, Jones OL, Cai X, Pasolli HA, Cross JR, Rudin CM, Thompson CB, Nature 2024 Nov 635 8039 746-754 Lactate activates the mitochondrial electron transport chain independently of its metabolism. Cai X, Ng CP, Jones O, Fung TS, Ryu KW, Li D, Thompson CB, Mol Cell 2023 Nov 83 21 3904-3920.e7 Development and characterization of new tools for detecting poly(ADP-ribose) in vitro and in vivo. Challa S, Ryu KW, Whitaker AL, Abshier JC, Camacho CV, Kraus WL, Elife 2022 Apr 11 Ribosome ADP-ribosylation inhibits translation and maintains proteostasis in cancers. Challa S, Khulpateea BR, Nandu T, Camacho CV, Ryu KW, Chen H, Peng Y, Lea JS, Kraus WL, Cell 2021 Aug 184 17 4531-4546.e26 Mitochondrial NADP(H) generation is essential for proline biosynthesis. Zhu J, Schwörer S, Berisa M, Kyung YJ, Ryu KW, Yi J, Jiang X, Cross JR, Thompson CB, Science 2021 May 372 6545 968-972 Functional Interplay between Histone H2B ADP-Ribosylation and Phosphorylation Controls Adipogenesis. Huang D, Camacho CV, Setlem R, Ryu KW, Parameswaran B, Gupta RK, Kraus WL, Mol Cell 2020 Sep 79 6 934-949.e14 PARP-1 Controls the Adipogenic Transcriptional Program by PARylating C/EBP? and Modulating Its Transcriptional Activity. Luo X, Ryu KW, Kim DS, Nandu T, Medina CJ, Gupte R, Gibson BA, Soccio RE, Yu Y, Gupta RK, Kraus WL Mol. Cell 2017 Jan 65 2 260-271 Results 1-10 of 15 1 2 Next Last Honors & Awards CPRIT Scholar (2025) Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize for Junior Investigators (2025) UT Southwestern Endowed Scholar (2025) Basic Research Innovation Award (2020) Hunter Douglas Breast Cancer Research Fellowship (2019) Professional Associations/Affiliations Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center (2026)
