Beyond The Disease, June 4, 2026

A commentary by MacVicar et al. in Cell Metabolism makes an insightful observation. Cancer presents a unique opportunity to understand how tumors manipulate mitochondria and to ask what those lessons mean both for the cancer community and mitochondrial biology.

A paper in Communications Medicine describes a recent study, led by Arupratan Das, screened compounds to find possible drugs to treat glaucoma. Using a high-throughput mitochondrial screen in cells, they identified the 5-HT1A antagonist WAY-100635 (WAY) as an intriguing candidate.

Mitochondria house metabolic pathways that support cell growth, survival, function and identity. Mutations in mitochondrial metabolic enzymes are drivers of many mitochondrial diseases, but different diseases arise when certain metabolic functions are disrupted, and the cell types affected are often poorly understood. In recent work published in Cell and Molecular Cell, a research team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center shed light on when cells use different metabolic pathways within mitochondria.

For the first time in the conference’s fourteen-year history — SynBioBeta draws up to 1,500 founders, investors, Fortune 500 executives, scientists, and government program managers annually — mitochondria had its own dedicated session in the Longevity Track. The session was titled “Mitochondrial Transplantation and Genome Editing: Engineering the Metabolic Engine of Complex Life.” It filled the room and ran long.

A large multi-institute research group, led by Alessandro Prigione, sought to repurpose approved drugs to treat Leigh syndrome. A screen of iPS cells identified sildenafil. Further testing showed that sildenafil improved symptoms in animals and patients. This study in Cell validated the iPS cell method and implicated sildenafil as a potential therapy.