Kris Olson

Kris Olson received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 2009 as an Undergraduate Research Scholar in Dr. Dale Poulter’s laboratory. He is currently a senior MD/PhD student in Dr. Jared Rutter’s laboratory at the University of Utah. His research focus has been expanding on the recently discovered mitochondrial pyruvate carrier, and examining its role in cancer, stem cell maintenance and differentiation, and heart failure.

Dr. Jared Rutter is a Professor of Biochemistry and holds the Dee Glen and Ida Smith Endowed Chair for Cancer Research at the University of Utah where he has been on the faculty since 2003. He will become a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in September 2015.

The Rutter laboratory employs a wide array of technologies to enable discovery related to metabolic control as well as fundamental aspects of mitochondrial biology. His laboratory has characterized the PAS kinase protein as an important factor in states of metabolic dysregulation—including obesity and diabetes. More recently, the Rutter laboratory and collaborators have identified the functions of a number of previously uncharacterized mitochondrial proteins, including the discovery of the long-sought mitochondrial pyruvate carrier. This knowledge has now enabled for the first time the interrogation of this critical metabolic step for impact in a variety of human diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease.