Dongryeol Ryu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering (BMSE)
Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)

Dongryeol Ryu, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at GIST, where he leads the Molecular and Integrative Biology (MIB) Laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) School of Medicine under Prof. Seung-Hoi Koo and completed his postdoctoral training with Prof. Johan Auwerx at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Before joining GIST, he held faculty positions at Sungkyunkwan University and Pusan National University. 

He currently serves as the principal investigator of the “Consortium for Multimodal Sarcopenia Therapeutics (2024–2028)” under Korea’s ARPA-H program (HAPPY : Holistic Approach for Promoting Physical Youthfulness), leading a nationwide effort to develop next-generation therapeutic strategies for sarcopenia. 

Prof. Ryu’s research focuses on aging biology, metabolism, muscle biology, and mitochondrial homeostasis, aiming to uncover molecular mechanisms and therapeutic strategies that promote healthy aging. His recent work highlights small metabolites and integrative biological approaches that enhance mitochondrial function and delay age-related decline.

He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications with more than 16,000 citations. His scientific impact has been recognized internationally, being named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (Top 1%) in 2022 and ranked among the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University and Elsevier from 2022 to 2025.

Through these efforts, Prof. Ryu and the MIB Lab strive to advance the understanding of molecular signaling pathways in aging and metabolism, while also training the next generation of scientists in biomedical research. (As of March. 2026)

“Where Molecular Discoveries
Drive Therapeutic Innovation.”