KU Medical Center exercise and metabolism researcher wins Big 12 Faculty of the Year Award

Curiosity kick-started John Thyfault’s career in science, and it continues motivating him to make new discoveries.

Toward the end of his college football career at Fort Hays State University, Thyfault, Ph.D., hoped to become a strength and conditioning coach. But, he thought, if you want to optimize what you’re doing in the weight room, wouldn’t it help to know what’s happening at the cellular level?

Thyfault is now a professor of cell biology and physiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center and a nationally recognized leader in metabolism, exercise physiology and chronic disease prevention research. For this work, Thyfault has been named KU’s winner of the 2025-2026 Big 12 Faculty of the Year Awards.

Now in their second year, the awards honor one top faculty member from each of the conference’s 16 schools for excellence in innovation and research.

Thyfault’s research reflects “extraordinary rigor and deep purpose,” said KU Vice Chancellor of Research Matthias Salathe, M.D. Thyfault’s work spans metabolism, mitochondrial energetics, obesity, exercise physiology and the mechanisms by which physical activity protects against insulin resistance, fatty liver disease and chronic metabolic illness.

“John Thyfault’s work at KU Medical Center stands as a powerful reminder of how science can transform lives,” Salathe said. “John does more than generate data; he illuminates pathways to better health. His leadership inspires all of us to think bigger, push further and believe that bold ideas paired with relentless effort can truly change the future of medicine.”

When Thyfault began his doctoral program at KU, a mentor posed this question: Did he want to study the 1% of the 1%, or the 99% of the population?

In response, Thyfault’s curiosity shifted from how exercise affects athletes to how it affects ordinary people facing a host of health problems.

His research seeks to understand how exercise protects against metabolic disease. He theorizes it’s linked to humans’ roots of being active every day to procure food, safety and shelter. Modern sedentary lifestyles are derailing our design, leading to metabolic dysfunction.

“Our hypothesis is that it’s not so much that exercise makes you healthier, it’s that exercise actually provides the normal function, that it sets us up for how our metabolism was designed to operate,” he said.

More specifically, Thyfault’s primary focus for the past two decades has been on the liver, a central organ in metabolic homeostasis. Research has shown that exercise can lower people’s risk for metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease, formerly called fatty liver. At the microscopic level, Thyfault’s studies involve observing how liver mitochondria, organelles known as the powerhouses of the cell, respond to obesity and physical inactivity or exercise.

Thyfault is proud to facilitate interdisciplinary research at KU Medical Center, where scholars are studying obesity and metabolism’s connection to cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and more.

“Metabolism and exercise both really play a fundamental role in everything going on in disease and health,” Thyfault said. “Everything’s connected.”

He’s also enthusiastic about the possibilities of research with his doctoral students and undergraduates who attend KU Medical Center’s summer research experiences.

“If you’re the creative, curious type, research is your thing,” Thyfault said. “It can be a hard career, but what other thing can you do in the world where you can just wake up and say, ‘I’m really curious about how this works — I’m going to design an experiment to test it.’”

“You get to do all that, plus it ultimately can help people.”

In recognition for his Big 12 Faculty of the Year Award, Thyfault will throw out the first pitch and receive a trophy at a KU baseball game this spring in Lawrence.

“We are constantly looking for ways to highlight how Big 12 faculty continue to educate and inspire the next generation of leaders,” Big 12 Chief Impact Officer Jenn Hunter said. “From the arts and film making to business and engineering, this year’s cohort showcases the vast opportunities available to students pursuing an education on Big 12 campuses.”