MitoWorld

In “Beyond the Disease” MitoWorld partners with the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF) to highlight advances in mitochondrial science and the people responsible for them. www.MitoWorld.org is devoted to better public and medical understanding of underlying mitochondrial science in an effort to raise awareness of the field in order to attract greater funding for the pursuit of mitochondrial disease and dysfunction.

Surprise finding reveals mitochondrial ‘energy factories’ come in two different types, published in Nature, provides an interview with world-class researcher Craig Thompson of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Thompson and team discovered that mitochondria specialize into two distinct classes in times of starvation.

In “Jumping Numts“, published in Scientific American, Columbia’s Martin Picard and colleagues explore for the first time how mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can be transmitted and integrated into nuclear DNA (nDNA) with potentially ill effects.

Roasting marshmellows over hot mitochondria

“Great Balls of Fire,” published in the FEBS Journal, investigates the temperature of mitochondria in cells, which is considerably higher than the surrounding cell. Lead author Howy Jacobs of Tampere University, Finland, is interviewed [Link] by MitoWorld editor, Gary Howard.

In this MitoWorld “Spotlight,” Life Sciences reporter Daniel Levine interviews Navdeep Chandel, PhD, David W. Cugell Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics at Northwestern University, about how the field of mitochondrial sciences is evolving and the need for greater investment to unlock treatments.

Creating the accepted language of mitochondrial transfer and transplantation is contained in a Consensus Statement published in Nature Metabolism, January 16, 2024, entitled, “Recommendations for mitochondria transfer and transplantation nomenclature and characterization.” Dr. Jon Brestoff of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and co-chair Keshav Singh, Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, led a team of 31 investigators from 13 countries to an agreement on recommended language to describe the rising field of naturally occurring mitochondria transfer between cells and external transplantation of mitochondria into cells, tissue and organs. Dr. Brestoff said, “The purpose of this article was to bring together experts in mitochondria transfer and transplantation and on mitochondria biology from around the world to make recommendations about terminology and characterization standards for the field’s benefit.”

Beyond The Disease, February 4, 2025