Mitochondrial Research

1) Mitochondrial Mechanisms of Disease and Development
2) Evolutionary Systems Biology, Marine Metagenomics, and Paleogenetics.

• The development of mouse models of mitochondrial dysfunction in diabetes and autism.
• The crossroads of mitochondrial function in innate immunity, autoimmunity, aging, stem cell biology, and regeneration.
• The detailed mechanisms of tissue-specific mtDNA replication, damage, copy number control, and extracellular nucleotide signaling via P2X and P2Y receptors in the control of CNV formation and DNA structural diversity during development.
• Develop novel methods for the study of secreted cellular exosomes and their genomics, proteomics, lipidomics, and metabolomics as non-invasive biomarkers of health and disease.
• Developing new methods of environmental DNA isolation and next-generation sequencing to create molecular census tables and trophic architectural maps of contemporary and ancient ecosystems.

Definitions:

Mitochondria: A membrane-enclosed organelle found in eukaryotic cells with 0.5-10 μm diameter. They generate most of the cell’s supply of ATP, they are also involved in signaling, cell differentiation, cell death, cell cycle and cell growth.

Evolutionary systems biology: Quantitative analysis of biological systems

Metagenomics: The study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples rather than cultivated microbial clonal cultures.

Paleogenetics: The application of genetics and paleontology “the study of pre-historic life including the organism’s evolution and interaction with the environment, explaining causes rather than observing the experiment’s effects.”

Autism: Neural development disorder defined by impaired social interaction and communication by restricted and repetitive behavior.

P2X receptors : Cation-permeable ion channels in response to ATP.

CNV : Copy number variant, a segment of DNA where the copy-number differences are found by comparison of genomes.

Exosome: A multi-protein complex capable of degrading RNA.

The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies on the food chain.


Mitochondrial disease symptoms:
• 3 or more organs are affected
• A relapsing disease with measurable slow deterioration
• Unexplained seizures, low blood counts, spasms, blindness, deafness, dementia, atamxia, cerebral palsy, heart failure and muscle weakness.


Inside Mirochondria:
• 3000 proteins. <1% “13 proteins” are encoded by mitochondrial DNA, while >99% are encoded by nucleus DNA. Each cell encodes 10K-15K proteins and mitochondrial proteins are 20-30% of it. Those 13 proteins are involved in electron transport to make ATP.
• 5 copies of ring-shaped DNA encoding 13 mitochondrial proteins. Mitochondrial DNA is the only DNA with maternal inheritance.