Navdeep “Nav” S. Chandel is both a leader and steward of the evolving field of mitochondrial biology.

As a newcomer to this area of science I was taken by Chandel’s energy, rigor, and enthusiasm for mitochondria, as well as his impatience on the pace of funding for the rapidly evolving field.  Chandel provides leadership that is both expansive and contagious. It is a commitment that is necessary raise the visibility of the field across medicine, health, and research to stimulate more funding and to establish mitochondria as a unique field of science.

A Scientific American article in 1957 entitled “The Powerhouse of the Cell,” followed by three profound discoveries elucidating how mitochondria make energy – John Mitchell (Chemiosmotic hypothesis, Nobel 1978 ), Paul Boyer (ATP synthase, Nobel 1997 ) and John Walker (mechanisms of ATP synthase, Nobel 1997, shared with Boyer) sealed mitochondria’s identify as the converter of what we consume into the energy we use to power our cells, organs, and  lives.

As a result, many biologists, researchers, textbook authors, and students failed to develop an understanding of mitochondria that went deeper than that.   In many ways the science of mitochondria became limited to its role in energy production. For some time, this narrow view shut off further investigations. As a Ph.D. student in the 1990s at University of Chicago, Chandel began to suspect that mitochondria played many other significant roles. This became his passion when started his in his lab at Northwestern University in January 2000.

To understand Chandel’s contribution to the field, just ask his colleagues.

“The work of Navdeep’s lab, and especially his intellectual leadership, has been transformational for the field,” says Gerry Shadel, of the Salk Institute. “Navdeep has been at the forefront for decades of trying to convince the world to think about mitochondria beyond just making ATP.  This position has turned out to be prescient as we have learned of the many, many ways that mitochondria impact health and disease, many of which have little to do with producing ATP.”

Chandel’s work in recognizing mitochondrial functions beyond ATP production has been part of the process to reinterpret mitochondria much more broadly.

“For decades, the mitochondria have been primarily viewed as biosynthetic and bioenergetic organelles generating metabolites for the production of macromolecules and ATP, respectively. We began to provide initial evidence that  mitochondria have a third distinct role whereby they participate in cellular signaling processes to control physiology through the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), “Chandel wrote on his website. “In the past two decades, many scientists have contributed to elucidating multiple modalities of how mitochondria communicate with the rest of the cell to dictate their function in physiological contexts.  A key aspect of mitochondrial signaling paradigm is that various pathologies linked to mitochondria dysfunction might occur not simply due to lack of ATP generation or metabolites but disruption of these normal signaling functions of mitochondria”.

This expanded view reflects what Chandel has been able to accomplish by showing that mitochondria are not a biological sideshow, but a star that belongs on the main stage.

“Navdeep has made numerous profound contributions to the understanding of how mitochondrial function and disruption contributes to human pathology, particularly in cancer and immunology,” said Mike Murphy, program leader at the University of Cambridge’s MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit. “Navdeep has pioneered the use of innovative transgenic animal models in which subtle modulation of respiratory function leads to important new insights into disease processes and opens the way to the development of novel therapies.”

Allyson Evans, editor in chief of the journal Cell Metabolism, in 2013 established a new symposium, the “Multifaceted Mitochondria Symposium.” The conference is held every two years. I just attended the 2024 Symposium in Sitges, Spain, where MitoWorld was a sponsor. Before I did, I had an opportunity to ask Evans how she and Cell decided to launch a symposium dedicated to mitochondria a decade ago, and how they gave it the name, “Multi-Faceted Mitochondria.” Her answer was simple. It was Navdeep Chandel who stimulated the interest and advocated for it.

This was same for our launching the global web portal MitoWorld, www.MitoWorld.org, in 2023. Chandel provided the confidence and connections for MitoWorld to begin its mission to mainstream mitochondria issues, provide a community hub for the public, patient, and professional mitochondria communities; and to advocate for the development of a mitochondrial science and informatics.

For others to get to know Chandel better, we asked life sciences journalist Daniel Levine to interview Navdeep for MitoWorld’s “Spotlight” section of the MitoWorld website.

About Navdeep S. Chandel, PhD:

Navdeep S. Chandel, PhD is the David W. Cugell Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics at Northwestern University. He received his BA in Mathematics (1991) and Ph.D. in Cell Physiology at the University of Chicago (1993-1997, Paul Schumacker) as well as a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago (1997-1999, jointly with Paul Schumacker and Craig Thompson). In 2000, he started his laboratory at Northwestern University on the concept of “Mitochondria as signaling organelles”. He has written a widely utilized introductory book entitled “Navigating Metabolism” (Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2014). He received the Clarence Ver Steeg Faculty Mentor Award in 2013, which recognizes faculty members from any department throughout Northwestern University for their outstanding mentorship of graduate students. In 2023, he was co-recipient of the FNIH Lurie Prize in Biomedical Science with Dr. Vamsi Mootha.