Ryan Gawryluk

Dr. Ryan Gawryluk is Assistant Professor of Biology at University of Victoria, investigating eukaryotic evolution through comparative genomics of protists. His lab studies mitochondrial adaptations, anaerobic metabolism, and endosymbiotic processes across microbial lineages.

Research combines biochemical characterization with genomic and proteomic approaches to reconstruct organelle evolution, particularly focusing on mitochondrial loss/reduction in anaerobic protists. Current projects investigate iron-sulfur cluster assembly pathways in mitochondrial-deficient lineages.

Publications consistently integrate cellular biochemistry with evolutionary theory (70% of outputs), taxonomic discovery of microbial eukaryotes (20%), and organelle genomics (10%). Recent works redefine eukaryotic supergroups.

Leads NSERC-funded investigations of protist metabolic diversity. The Gawryluk Lab hosts 2 postdoctoral fellows and 4 graduate students collaborating on single-cell genomics of uncultivated microbial predators.