Mitochondria Metabolism And Signaling

The conference will focus on Mitochondria Metabolism and Signaling, and will emphasize integrative and novel approaches that seek to understand the broader role and impact of mitochondria to cellular physiology. Mitochondria were traditionally thought to act only as cellular powerplants. However, the fast pace progress driven by new methodologies in genetics, omics and computational approaches has provided evidence that mitochondria are central to cell metabolism, signaling and for the response to stress. Importantly, an increasing body of work has indicated that the broader effects of mitochondrial responses can be different dependent on the tissue, may be triggered by diverse stimuli and can be relayed with and without the presence of canonical mitochondrial dysfunction. Despite tremendous progress in the field, we still know little about how these diverse but yet specific responses are regulated and how mitochondria biology is influenced biochemically and/or physically. The conference will focus on aspects of mitochondrial metabolism, stress responses and signaling both in model systems and cells with specialized structural and functional arrangements, like cardiomyocytes and neurons, in additional to other poorly studied systems like the kidneys. The program will have an emphasis on physiological situations but will also cover mitochondrial stress responses elicited by various conditions, including environmental exposures which initiate or augment cell injury. We will also cover novel areas such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and computational approaches that can help expand our knowledge of mitochondrial behavior, structure and function within the cell. Our aim is to bring together a broad range of scientist from different fields that can complement and integrate different approaches and methods to better understand the broader role and impact of mitochondria within the cells. We will also host a round table discussion with clinicians and representatives from Foundations, as well as patients or patient advocates, who will relay the impact of mitochondrial research on the everyday outcomes of mitochondrial disease patients.

This conference will overall address the unmet needs for comprehensively support of the broad and rapidly emerging multidisciplinary aspects of mitochondrial biology research and the wealth of scientists who have been working on this and complementary fields. Finally, this meeting will also engage junior investigators, female scientists, and underrepresented minorities who seek training in mitochondrial biology.