EMPIRI Co-founder Dr. Kyuson Yun Named as a 2025 Beneficiary in Men of Distinction Program, Benefiting Medical Research and Treatment for Children

Associate Professor in the Department of Neorology, Houston Methodist, Weill Cornell Medical College Inaugural Chair of Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Houston MethodistCofounder, biotech company EMPIRI

Kyuson Yun, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Houston Methodist and Weill Cornell Medical College. She is also the inaugural Houston Methodist Chair of Neurodegenerative Disease Research, and a cofounder of a biotech company EMPIRI. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Biology from Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena, CA. She continued her postdoctoral training at UCSF and then at Dartmouth Medical School. Prior to Houston Methodist, she was a faculty member at the Jackson Laboratory. Dr. Yun is an American Cancer Society Research Scholar and a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for the American Brain Tumor Association.

Her research interests have evolved over the years, from neural stem cell regulation and brain development to cancer stem cells in brain tumors to tumor:immune interactions. Currently, her lab is focused on elucidating the sex biased role of the immune system in brain cancer and neurodegeneration. Her lab leverages their expertise in mouse genetics, mouse modeling, 3D cultures, single cell and spatial transcriptomics analyses, and nanomedicine. Her lab studies molecular, cellular, and functional heterogeneity of various cell types in the diseased and healthy brain and nerves. They also leverage a vast amount of single cell data in different disease states to decipher cell:cell interactions that are in common and unique to GBM, medulloblastoma, Alzheimer’s disease, Charcot Marie Tooth disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases to discover new therapeutic targets.

For more information: https://menofdistinction.org/beneficiaries/