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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD

@walterwchen.bsky.social
822 followers 311 following 73 posts

Neonatologist + Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at UTSW | BWF CAMS awardee Studying #metabolism, #mitochondria, #peroxisomes in neonatal medicine

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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
To learn more about our research and how to apply, check out neochenlab.org
neochenlab.org
NeoChen Lab @ UT Southwestern
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The NeoChen Lab is recruiting and will start Oct 1, 2026 in Mol Bio Dept @UTSW! Looking for creative+passionate techs, grad students, postdocs. We apply the lens of neonatal medicine to study #peroxisomes #mitochondria to advance the care of neonates and beyond. @bwfund.bsky.social
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Henry De Belly @henrydebelly.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Very excited to be sharing our new paper, just out in Nature Cell Biology! The big question we investigate: How do migrating cells put their front 🔴 and back 🔵 in the right place?
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Big congrats Milan on a beautiful paper!!
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Milan Savani @milansavani.com · 29/04/2026
1/12 🛣️ Mapping nitrogen metabolism has lagged carbon due to substrate diversity. In @natmetabolism.nature.com, we introduce a platform to do this mapping at scale and identify mechanisms by which differentiation state dictates pyrimidine synthesis. 🧵👇 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s42...
This celestial scene represents tracking the constellation of metabolites that contribute to cellular nitrogen metabolism. Artwork by Melissa Logies.
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Big congrats to my postdoc mentor @rjdlab.bsky.social on his election to NAS!! 🎉🎉🎉 An inspiring physician-scientist and wonderful person and mentor.
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
We will be hiring soon! 🥳
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Big thanks to my wife Hoi See Tsao, my daughters, my parents, and mentors @dmsabatini.bsky.social @harperlabhms.bsky.social @rjdlab.bsky.social, and @cri-utsw.bsky.social, UTSW Pediatrics, @ameracadpeds.bsky.social @bwfund.bsky.social and NIDDK for all their support!
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
So excited to join @transactivator.bsky.social @mendell-lab.bsky.social @kateodonnell-lab.bsky.social @ondinecleaver.bsky.social @buszczaklab.bsky.social @jewelllab.bsky.social @echenlab.bsky.social @jun-wu-lab.bsky.social and others not on Bluesky!
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Thrilled to share that I’ll be starting my lab as an Assistant Professor and Endowed Scholar in the UT Southwestern Molecular Biology Dept this Fall! 🥳 We’ll study #peroxisomes #mitochondria #metabolism via the lens of neonatology 👶🏻, a very exciting frontier in medicine! #neotwitter
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DeBerardinis Lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center @rjdlab.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
New paper from Dr. Wen Gu on the impact of L-2-hydroxyglutarate deficiency on neural stem cell function and neuronal differentiation. Interesting connection between an IEM and chronic oncogene activation. Thanks to Dr. Bushra Afroze and her patients for participating. www.jci.org/articles/vie...
jci.org
JCI - L-2-hydroxyglutarate impairs neuronal differentiation through epigenetic activation of MYC expression
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Henry De Belly @henrydebelly.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
My lab @cri-utsw.bsky.social is looking for a highly motivated postdoct interested in mechanobiology! We are building a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary team working on how mechanical forces shape immune and cancer cell behavior. Come do cool science with me! lnkd.in/gKEXWUGy
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Natalie Niemi @nieminm.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Really thrilled to have our work on mitochondrial presequence strength out today @jcb.org. We establish quantitative parameters to better define "strong" and "weak" presequences both in vitro and in vivo. This work was spearheaded by the ever talented Youmian Yan, a BBSB graduate student in my lab.
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Josh Mendell @mendell-lab.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Regulated decay of microRNAs plays a critical role in controlling body size in mammals! Check out our new paper in @genesdev.bsky.social and see thread previously posted with our pre-print 👇 for more info. Congrats to Collette LaVigne, Jaeil Han, and all authors! genesdev.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...
genesdev.cshlp.org
Plagl1 and Lrrc58 control mammalian body size by triggering target-directed microRNA degradation of miR-322 and miR-503
A biweekly scientific journal publishing high-quality research in molecular biology and genetics, cancer biology, biochemistry, and related fields
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Big Congrats to @zhengwu1.bsky.social and Phong Nguyen on this beautiful work!!
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DeBerardinis Lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center @rjdlab.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
1/New paper from Zheng Wu, Phong Nguyen et al. @cri-utsw.bsky.social shows how cells balance the two pathways that produce purine nucleotides: de novo purine biosynthesis (DNPB) and purine salvage. The surprising mechanism involves NUDT5, a Nudix hydrolase www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
NUDT5 regulates purine metabolism and thiopurine sensitivity by interacting with PPAT
Cells generate purine nucleotides through de novo purine biosynthesis (DNPB) and purine salvage. Purine salvage represses DNPB to prevent excessive purine nucleotide synthesis through mechanisms that ...
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Interested in organellar metabolomics? Check out my talk tomorrow on how the Rapid Organellar IP technology has enabled discoveries in organellar biology over the past 10 years! Ty Tech Networks for the invite! @cri-utsw.bsky.social @rjdlab.bsky.social www.technologynetworks.com/proteomics/o...
technologynetworks.com
Advances in Proteomics & Metabolomics 2025
Proteomics and metabolomics are unlocking new dimensions in our understanding of biology and disease. This event will highlight the latest developments in mass spectrometry, single-cell proteomics and...
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Henry De Belly @henrydebelly.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Thrilled to announce the launch of my lab @cri-utsw.bsky.social at UTSW this January! We will explore how cells sense and respond to mechanical forces, focusing on membrane mechanics to reveal how tension and signaling work together to shape cell behavior.
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Heidi M McBride @mitodynamics.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
New paper - MAPL strikes again! Interested in mitochondrial signalling, inflammation, lysosome biology, pyroptosis, and Parkinson's disease? Have a look, there's something for everyone! Feeling grateful! @mitocollier.bsky.social Funded by #CIHR, @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org. rdcu.be/eKKz1 🇨🇦
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Beautiful work as usual Kara!! Fascinating and exciting study! 💪🏻
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Kara McKinley @karalmckinley.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Lab’s 1st preprint! Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate. @cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation. He is on the job market!
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RyanLab_TCD @ryanlab.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Exciting study from @frisophagy.bsky.social in @chinnery in the Chinnery lab @mrc-mbu.bsky.social. Congratulations to all authors involved in the study! #mitochondria Ubiquitin-mediated mitophagy regulates the inheritance of mitochondrial DNA mutations | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Ubiquitin-mediated mitophagy regulates the inheritance of mitochondrial DNA mutations
Mitochondrial synthesis of adenosine triphosphate is essential for eukaryotic life but is dependent on the cooperation of two genomes: nuclear and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). mtDNA mutates ~15 times as...
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Congrats Isha!! 🎉👏🏻
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Gladstone Institutes @gladstoneinst.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Leveraging modern scientific tools and techniques, @ishahjain.bsky.social intends to transform our understanding of the critical roles that vitamins play in health and disease.
gladstone.org
Bringing Modern Science to Vitamin Biology: Isha Jain Wins NIH Transformative Research Award
Leveraging modern scientific tools and techniques, Jain intends to transform our understanding of the critical roles that vitamins play in health and disease.
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Excited to present my research at the upcoming University of Utah Rising Stars Symposium and meet fellow scientists who love metabolism! @cri-utsw.bsky.social @rjdlab.bsky.social
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Big congrats and welcome! Looking forward to seeing you around campus and your future science!
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Nils Burger @nilsburger.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Excited to share that I’ve started my lab as an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
 Thank you to all the mentors, friends, and colleagues who have supported me throughout the years!
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echouchani.bsky.social @echouchani.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
First post here! Excited to share a new paper and online resource from our lab published today. We developed a mass spectrometry approach that leverages genetic diversity to systematically nominate functional relationships between metabolites and proteins. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Covariation MS uncovers a protein that controls cysteine catabolism - Nature
A mass spectrometry-based approach globally identifies protein regulators of metabolism and reveals the role of LRRC58 in controlling cysteine catabolism.
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Irfan Lodhi @lodhilab.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Happy to share our new paper in @nature.com led by staff scientist Xuejing Liu. We report identification of a UCP1-independent pathway of brown fat thermogenesis involving ATP-consuming metabolism of BCFA in peroxisomes. #Obesity #T2D www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Peter Ly @peterlylab.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Excited to join the @cri-utsw.bsky.social community to advance discoveries in genome instability. We are grateful to UTSW Pathology for 6 wonderful years. 🚨 We are also recruiting motivated postdocs to study how mitotic errors and aberrant nuclear structures drive cancer genome evolution—join us!
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Jordan Ray @jordanray.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
I am excited to share my graduate work in the Sabatini and @bartellab.bsky.social labs. Since their discovery, we have known lysosomes possess RNase activity; however, their substrates were not known. Surprisingly we find specific RNAs are targeted for degradation! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Lysosomal RNA profiling reveals targeting of specific types of RNAs for degradation
Autophagy targets a wide variety of substrates for degradation within lysosomes. While lysosomes are known to possess RNase activity, the role of lysosomal RNA degradation in post-transcriptional gene...
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Woo!! Congrats Zheng!! 🎉🎉
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Nature Cell Biology @natcellbio.nature.com · 14/08/2025
🍹 @walterwchen.bsky.social et al show that PEX39 cooperates with PEX7 in the peroxisomal import of proteins containing a PTS2 site and uncover an (R/K)PWE motif in PEX39 and PEX13 that binds to PEX7 and facilitates the import of PTS2-containing proteins. bit.ly/4lmjv2l
bit.ly
PEX39 facilitates the peroxisomal import of PTS2-containing proteins - Nature Cell Biology
Chen et al. show that PEX39 cooperates with PEX7 in the peroxisomal import of proteins containing a PTS2 site and uncover an (R/K)PWE motif in PEX39 and PEX13 that binds to PEX7 and facilitates the im...
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Big congrats Nick!!! 🎉🎉
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Nick Burton @nickburton.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
I’m really beyond thrilled to be included in this years Pew Biomedical Scholars cohort and to be able to meet all the incredible scientists in this program. I was in Scott Kennedy’s lab when he was a Pew Scholar and never thought I’d be lucky enough to also be one! www.pew.org/en/about/new...
pew.org
Pew Awards 22 Researchers Biomedical Science Grants
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Tony (Yichi) Zhang @tonyzhangphd.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Happy to announce that I was awarded a pathway to independence award (K99) from the NCI/NIH today to work on studying whole-body metabolism driving cancer cachexia. None of this would be possible without support from @damonrunyon.org, @transactivator.bsky.social and @mvhlab.bsky.social.
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Ryan Flynn @raflynn5.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
RNA N-glycosylation enables immune evasion and homeostatic efferocytosis by chemically caging acp3U. Excited to report this work lead by Vinnie @vinnieviruses.bsky.social and in collaboration with @vijayrathinam.bsky.social in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Sarah Cohen @cohenlaboratory.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
I’m extremely honored to be recognized with the WICB Junior Research Award. ASCB and WICB have been key to my career development since I attended my first annual meeting in 2005. Congrats to the other awardees!
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Daniel Drucker @danieljdrucker.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
A new tragedy for the Endocrine community An outstanding scientist leaves us too soon
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Uri Manor @manorlaboratory.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
I am unspeakably humbled and grateful for this honor - to "wear" Goeddel's name is simply insane. I can only promise to do my best to do it justice. ONWARDS!!!
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ASolmonson @asolmonson.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Our lab has derived over 50 trophoblast organoid lines to better understand how chronic conditions like hypertension and obesity influence placental development and metabolism. (Check out this figure made with @biorender.bsky.social)
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Big thanks to Jianguo Wu, Min Zhuang, @natcellbio.nature.com for a great News and Views on our work and that of Michael Skowyra, Tom Rapoport. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Pieces of the peroxisomal import puzzle - Nature Cell Biology
Peroxisomes are single membrane-bound organelles containing numerous enzymes to perform metabolic functions. However, our view of peroxisomal protein import has remained incomplete. Two recent studies...
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Ondine Cleaver @ondinecleaver.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Happy to share our work on the role of biomechanical PULSATILITY on lung vessels. Following surgery to alleviate overload in kids with single ventricle hearts, lung arteries form AVMs. #DevBio #EndothelialCell #CHD Beautiful work from Steve Spurgin. #DevBio 🫁 🫀 ❤️‍🩹 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Pulsatile flow dynamics determine pulmonary arterial architecture
BACKGROUND Single ventricle congenital heart disease (SV-CHD) is a uniformly lethal condition. Survival depends upon the Glenn surgery, which shunts venous blood directly to the pulmonary arteries wit...
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Thank you very much Vijay!!
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Much thanks Jason!!
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Wonderful collaboration with you Daniel!!
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Daniel Wendscheck @dwendscheck.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Major part of my PhD thesis is finally online! Thanks to everyone involved 🙏 @walterwchen.bsky.social @rjdlab.bsky.social @tmoeckli.bsky.social @hirakdas.bsky.social and the entire @warscheidlab.bsky.social #peroxisomes #Massspec #proteomics
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Children's Research Institute at UT Southwestern @cri-utsw.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
ONLINE NOW in @natcellbio.nature.com: CRI's @rjdlab.bsky.social Lab postdoc @walterwchen.bsky.social & international colleagues have discovered the first new human peroxin in 20 years. Read more ⬇️ cri.utsw.edu/deberardinis... #relentlessdiscovery 🧪
cri.utsw.edu
DeBerardinis Lab discovers first human peroxin in 20 years - Children's Medical Center Research Institute (CRI) | Dallas Texas
CRI researchers, international colleagues identify PEX39, which facilitates peroxisomal protein import PEX39 is the first new human peroxisomal biogenesis protein, a peroxin or PEX, to be identified i...
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Complementary work also from the Rapoport Lab www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Import mechanism of peroxisomal proteins with an N-terminal signal sequence - Nature Cell Biology
Skowyra and Rapoport find that peroxisomal proteins with N-terminal PTS2 signals are imported through a nuclear pore-like conduit by PEX7 and a receptor. PEX7 then returns through the same conduit and...
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Walter W. Chen, MD, PhD @walterwchen.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Big thanks to my postdoc mentor @rjdlab.bsky.social, all authors, @cri-utsw.bsky.social, @bwfund.bsky.social
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