Ku-Lung (Ken) Hsu, Ph.D. is anassociate professor in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin.  Dr. Hsu studies protein and lipid activity in human biology and disease and research conducted in his laboratory uses a combination of organic, bioanalytical, and bioorganic chemistry. His group has developed enabling technologies in the form of covalent probes and inhibitors, and proteomic screening capabilities to help discover new ways for targeting cancer initiation, progression, and resistance. 

Dr. Hsu earned his Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin where he trained with Prof. Lara Mahal to pioneer the development of protein microarrays for profiling complex glycosylation on tumor cell surfaces. He pursued further training in chemical biology with Prof. Benjamin Cravatt at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) as a Hewitt Foundation for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellow. At TSRI, he gained expertise in activity-based protein profiling  and mass spectrometry-based lipidomics to discover and functionally annotate lipid-signaling pathways in neurophysiology and immunology.  Dr Hsu began at the University of Virginia (UVA) in 2015 where , he and his group used chemistry and chemical biology methods to decipher the biological roles of  proteins involved in the metabolism of lipids. He built an innovative, federally-funded research program (NIH, DOD, NSF) aimed at deciphering the mechanistic basis for specificity of diacylglycerol (DAG) lipid biology. Specifically, his group made important discoveries on DAG signaling in T cells and how to selectively target metabolic enzymes for immunotherapy in cancer. Dr. Hsu's research program has been recognized by several awards including the highly competitive NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, Department of Defense CDMRP Career Development Award, Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Emerging Leader Award from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.

Dr. Hsu was recruited to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin in 2022 through a CPRIT Recruitment of Rising Stars award. As a CPRIT Scholar,Dr. Hsu aims to apply sulfur-triazole exchange (SuTEx) chemistry developed by his group to tackle a previously unreachable class of proteins. The impact of his proposed research is a creative means to reveal and target cancer vulnerabilities by disrupting tumor-specific stress coping mechanisms for precision medicine.