By james art 
January 28, 2025
This paid piece was sponsored by Biotech of South Dakota.
The methods developed by a research leader at Sanford Health continue to be used in the work of scientists worldwide.
This and other contributions to the district have prompted Kyle Ru to be recognized as a life associate of the American Society for Cell Biology.
Nominated by its 17 Scholarships Cohorta peers, the RU was excellent for its work, developing a bioid, an established method used by the scientific community to screen for the proximity of protein and interactions in living cells.
“This is a significant honor in the field of biotechnology and we are excited to congratulate Kyle for such a well -deserved recognition,” said Johnny Extur, CEO of South Dakota Biotech. “He is an example of the caliber of a researcher who finds success in our country, and we are excited to see how he encourages his work here.”
Roux serves as a vice president of biomedical research at Sanford Research, a leading 20-lane team.
We sat with him to learn more about his innovative work.
What initially led you to Sanford Research?
I arrived in 2011 and I was among the early recruits for the Center for the Study of Children’s Health. At the time, I was a young teacher at the University of Florida in their cellular biology department and examined the labor market. At that time, the Sanford Research was relatively new, but I made a jump and joined the group because it looked a great team and a cooperation environment and it turned out to be a good choice.
How would you describe your basic research?
I am a cellular biologist and, above all, study a structure in all our cells called a nuclear sheath. This is the structure that surrounds the nucleus where our DNA is stored and it turns out to be an important structure in the cell. Mutations in the nuclear sheath may mean that you end with a wide variety of rare diseases, including many types of muscular dystrophy, cardiomyopathy, lipodistrophy, dystonia, neuropathy, skeletal defects and progeria, which is premature aging. The most common diseases, most of all, are also associated with defects in the nuclear sheath. One of the areas we work now is a phenomenon called nuclear rupture, where the nuclear sheath actually opens like a cracking of an egg that is not good, but it turns out that the cell has a complex mechanism to repair these tears so that We work to characterize this.
How did this work make you develop bioid?
Studying the nuclear sheath is difficult. We are most studying proteins and figuring out how they work normally in the cage and how they do not work when they mutate. Proteins rarely work alone; They work in partnership with other proteins to achieve a higher function. In a nutshell, the bioid is an enzyme that works as a spray box paint on protein that allows you to generate a history of their associations so that we can better explore what happened in a living cell. Existing methods were not ideal for studying this, and the bioid was a very radical method at first, so I started my research program and had been a great success with it for several years.
How has this method advanced in the scientific community?
It has become a working horse for scientists around the world, and therefore the new techniques associated with it have turned. For many years, I have supported other people who do the job and I still have a core to provide bioid services to other investigators here in Sanford and other places around the world. I know it is used all over the world for all kinds of things that I never imagined to be used. During the pandemic, we were able to use it on the SARS -COV -COV -COV protein to contribute to a database of protein interactions that occur with viral proteins.
What does recognition as an associate from the American Cell Biology Society for you mean?
It is an honor for me to be nominated for this because it came from my peers. I have been a member of society for 20 years – this is my scientific home, so this is a community in which I am very built and deal with. To be called a colleague is an acknowledgment of the achievements that I had the good fortune that I could have, who contributed to the scientific community.
What keeps you at Sanford Research and what would you say to others by considering working in South Dakota?
My colleagues and the culture we developed, along with the support of the institution, is what really holds me here. We are actively recruiting investigators and I think we have been wildly successful with him. When I first went out, I had to look up and see where the Siu waterfall was, but we hired Harvard, we have people coming from Stanford and Duke and even the University of Dundee, so we attract people from the best institutions from the best institutions The whole world and I do not see this to change. We have succeeded by providing avant -garde resources that allow people to create and maintain impactful research programs and do it within an integrated healthcare system. I think the future is even more light.
To contact the growing biotechnology industry in South Dakota, visit sdbio.org.