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Mangyu Choe, Assistant Professor, Research

Research Focus

Metabolism is compartmentalized in subcellular organelles and its regulation is interconnected in a complex manner. To gain deeper insights into how metabolic regulation occurs, there is a pressing need to develop tools capable of direct and compartment-specific manipulation of individual metabolites or metabolic pathways/enzymes. My research primarily revolves around engineering tools known as ‘Genetically Encoded tools for the Manipulation of Metabolism (GEMMs)’, aimed at precisely manipulating single metabolic pathways within live cells. Recently, I developed a genetic reagent designed to target mitochondrial membrane potential and addressed its implications in ATP synthase dysfunction.

At CRI, my work goes beyond the development of genetic tools and aims to understand the effects of manipulating various metabolic parameters on inter-organelle communications. Additionally, I investigate whether direct and specific manipulation of inter-organelle communications could offer valuable insights for developing potential therapeutic approaches across diverse disease models.

Headshot of Mangyu Choe, Ph.D.
Mangyu Choe, Ph.D., earned his bachelor’s in biology from Seoul National University in South Korea. He stayed to complete his master’s and Ph.D. in microbial physiology. During his training, he…
Headshot of Mangyu Choe, Ph.D.

Mangyu Choe, Ph.D.

Mangyu Choe, Ph.D., earned his bachelor’s in biology from Seoul National University in South Korea. He stayed to complete his master’s and Ph.D. in microbial physiology. During his training, he worked on unveiling the underlying molecular mechanism of glucose preference over other carbon sources in Escherichia coli, simply known as Carbon Catabolite Repression (CCR). He then joined Denis Titov’s lab at UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral fellow, where he developed a data-driven mathematical model and a genetic tool to study metabolism.

Dr. Choe joined the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) in 2024 as a research assistant professor. He is now focusing on developing and applying genetic tools to study inter-organelle communications.

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Lee, S.H., Kim, Y., Kim, G., Choe, M., Roh, S.H., Baek, M, and Y.J. Seok. (2026). CRP-dependent DNA anchoring and membrane sequestration define a dual mechanism for MtlR-mediated regulation. Nucleic Acids Research, 54 :gkag751. (PubMed)

Choe, M., Ekvik, A.E., Stalnaker, G., Shin, H.R., and D.V. Titov. (2025). Genetically encoded tool for manipulation of ΔΨm identifies its role as the driver of ISR induced by ATP synthase dysfunction. Cell Chemical Biology 32, 620-30. (PubMed)

Choe, M., Einav, T., Phillips, R., and D.V. (2025). Glycolysis model shows that allostery maintains high ATP and limits accumulation of intermediates. Biophysical Journal 124, 1562-86. (PubMed)

Choe, M., and D.V. Titov. (2022). Genetically encoded tools for measuring and manipulating metabolism. Nature Chemical Biology 18, 451-460. (PubMed)

Manford, A.G., Rodriguez-Perez, F., Shih, K.Y., Shi, Z., Berdan, C.A., Choe, M., Titov, D.V., Nomura, D.K., and Michael Rape. (2020). A cellular mechanism to detect and alleviate reductive stress. Cell 183, 46-61. (PubMed)

Choe, M.#, Min, H.#, Park, Y.H., Kim, Y.R., Jae-Sung Woo* and Yeong-Jae Seok*. (2019). Structural insight into glucose repression of the mannitol operon. Scientific Reports 9, 13930. (PubMed)

Choe, M., Park, Y.H., Lee, C.R., Kim, Y.R., and Yeong-Jae Seok. (2017). The general PTS component HPr determines the preference for glucose over mannitol. Scientific Reports 7, 43431. (PubMed)

Park, Y.H., Lee, C.R., Choe, M., and Yeong-Jae Seok. (2013). HPr antagonizes the anti-s70 activity of Rsd in Escherichia coli. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, 21142-7. (PubMed)

#Co-first authors; * Co-senior author

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