Junco Warren

Junco Warren, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Virginia Tech’s Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise. She holds an adjunct appointment at Kumamoto University, Japan. Her research focuses on metabolic reprogramming in heart failure, particularly mechanisms linking energy metabolism dysfunction to cardiac pathology. Key interests include mitochondrial bioenergetics, metabolomics, and epigenetic regulation in cardiac disease.

Education: PhD in Pharmacology (SUNY Medical School, 2007), B.A. in International Economics (Aoyama-Gakuin University, 1997).

Research Interests: Her work investigates how metabolic dysregulation drives heart failure progression, with emphasis on PERM1 and Smyd1 proteins. Projects include metabolomics-based biomarker discovery and therapeutic strategies targeting mitochondrial function.

Awards: Notable recognitions include the 2023 Seale Innovation Award, 2016 BCVS Early Career Investigator Award, and multiple NIH and American Heart Association grants.

Grants/Advising: Leads the Warren Lab, mentoring graduate and undergraduate students. Current projects involve PERM1 gene therapy in heart failure models and collaborations on mitochondrial dysfunction mechanisms.

Lab Affiliations: Center for Vascular and Heart Research at Fralin, with international collaborations in Japan and the U.S.