sergey_krupenko@unc.edu
704-250-5053
Sergey A. Krupenko, PhD
Professor of Nutrition
Sergey A. Krupenko, PhD, joined the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in 2014. Dr. Krupenko’s research focuses on vitamin folate and its role in liver function and cancer disease. His goal is to understand how we can fight cancer by controlling the diet and nutrient supplements. “There are molecular strings in the human organism, which can be pulled by the right combinations of nutrients to activate resistance to tumor formation or to slow down cancer development. We have to identify these links and make them work,” he said. Dr. Krupenko has received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry from Byelorussian State University and a PhD in Biochemistry at the Byelorussian Academy of Sciences. Before joining the NRI, he was a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina. He has a joint appointment as a Professor of Nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC-Chapel Hill.
Sergey A. Krupenko, PhD, joined the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in 2014. Dr. Krupenko’s research focuses on vitamin folate and its role in liver function and cancer disease. His goal is to understand how we can fight cancer by controlling the diet and nutrient supplements.
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In the News
Communicate Your Research
by Bryan Munoz, PhD As a scientist at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute my goal is to better humanity through research aimed at nutrients and their role on our health. I spend time in the lab each day applying advanced scientific methods to proteins in the folate...
Molding the Scientific Minds of Tomorrow
The UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) is helping mold the scientific minds of tomorrow by offering unique learning and work experiences for graduate students in sciences related to personalized nutrition, like nutrigenomics and metabolomics. These young...
Folate is Essential, But Don’t Overdo It
Folate is a water-soluble vitamin, naturally found in many foods. Folate helps to make DNA and RNA and is involved in metabolism of amino acids. It is needed to produce healthy red blood cells and plays a key role in removing homocysteine, a molecule that can exert...
UNC nutrition experts uncover structure of enzyme that could aid in disease treatment, prevention
This article was published originally by the Gillings School of Global Public Health on January 25, 2022. New findings from researchers at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) have revealed the structure of an enzyme that plays a key role in predicting whether a...
Publications
2025
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
The Role of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the Function of Candidate Tumor Suppressor ALDH1L1.
Cytosolic 10-formyltetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase regulates glycine metabolism in mouse liver.
Deleterious mutations in ALDH1L2 suggest a novel cause for neuro-ichthyotic syndrome.
Loss of ALDH1L1 folate enzyme confers a selective metabolic advantage for tumor progression.





