Ryan Montalvo, Ph.D.

Ryan Nestor Montalvo is originally from New Jersey and earned a degree in Molecular Biology from Liberty University in 2015 where he met his wife, Allyson. At Liberty, Ryan participated in research related to the gut microbiome and he decided to pursue an academic career. Following graduation he worked as a research fellow at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Md., investigating the role of infection in orthopedic trauma. Ryan began graduate school at the University of South Carolina and working with Dr. James Carson to study cancer cachexia. When Dr. Carson moved to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Ryan was adopted by Dr. Ashley Smuder to remain in South Carolina. Dr. Smuder had alternative plans and was hired in 2019 by the Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology at University of Florida where Ryan followed and pursued a degree in exercise physiology. During his doctoral work Ryan had a varied experience to include publishing several manuscripts, pursuing funding, getting married, contending with an international pandemic, living in Florida, and raising his first child. His doctoral work was funded by the American Heart Association and focuses on mitochondrial turnover in the context of doxorubicin treatment and exercise. Ryan was awarded a doctoral degree from the University of Florida in the summer of 2023 and began working at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Dr. Zhen Yan’s lab at the Center for Exercise Medicine. Ryan is supported by funding from the Lyerly Foundation. Current projects are focusing on the regulation of mitochondrial remodeling following exercise within the heart and skeletal muscle and the role of AMPK in this dynamic signaling process, with specific focus on mitochondrial bioenergetics.