Current Topics Seminar: Mitochondrial Dynamics in Disease – The State of Research

Mitochondrial Dynamics in Disease – The State of Research

Carl Decker, PhD Student

Mitochondria are dynamic, double-membrane bound hubs of bioenergetics, cell signaling, and redox balance that exist as an oscillating network of fused superstructures and smaller, single organelles. Their position at the junction of catabolic and anabolic metabolism is thought to connect dysfunctions of these morphological changes to larger cellular metabolic programs, which in turn has implicated mitochondrial dynamics in a number of disease states – cancer, obesity, diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s among them. Recent research has revealed, for example, that staving off cardiac hypertrophy and cardiomyopathy may be dependent on mitochondrial network morphology, and in particular on remodeling dynamics that yield fused mitochondrial assemblies favoring oxidative phosphorylation-driven metabolism. In contrast, many cancers have been shown to de-emphasize mitochondrial fusion processes through enhanced fission action, which has been theorized to be associated with the glycolytic hallmarks of cancer proliferation and progression. This seminar seeks to elucidate the diversity of the roles mitochondrial dynamics play in defining metabolic schemes across many normal and abnormal physiologies, as well as to underscore the gaps in the literature that our research intends to fill, particularly within the oncological and chemotherapeutic domains.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 12:00 p.m.
Building 517, 165 Classroom

Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP below so that we may ensure all attendees are accounted for.