The second online seminar of 2024 will take place on October 17th from 16:00-17:15. Our keynote speaker will be Navdeep Chandel who is a Professor at the Department of Medicine and Biochemisty & Molecular Genetics Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.
“Mitochondria signaling control physiology and diseases”
Navdeep Chandel’s lab has made fundamental contribution to understanding how mitochondria regulate biological responses beyond ATP production. For decades, mitochondria have been primarily viewed as biosynthetic and bioenergetic organelles generating metabolites to produce macromolecules and ATP, respectively. Their work has revealed mitochondria have a third distinct role whereby mitochondria beyond ATP production can generate signals to control physiology and diseases. Their work reveals that mitochondria can release reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the metabolites in controlling hypoxic responses, cellular differentiation, and immune responses. Thus, their work has changed view of mitochondria not only as powerhouses of the cell but as signaling organelles controlling physiology. They have established that mitochondrial metabolism is necessary for cancer cell, endothelial cell, and conventional T cell proliferation in vivo. Before, the prevailing idea was that only increased aerobic glycolysis was the dominant metabolic pathway in these proliferating cells. By contrast, stem cells and Tregs utilize mitochondria through signaling mechanisms to control differentiation and function, respectively. Their recent work is to causally link changes in mitochondrial dependent metabolism and signaling to neuronal and glia physiology as well as neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s Disease and ALS. Furthermore, their unpublished work indicates metformin inhibits mitochondrial complex I to exert its physiological effects. Finally, Navdeep Chandel wrote “Navigating Metabolism” (CSHL Press 2014), an introductory book on metabolism.
“Immuno-metabolic stress responses control longevity from mitochondrial translation inhibition”
Iman Hu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Amsterdam University Medical Center (AMC), specializing in bioinformatics. She is focused on better understanding stress responses and how to leverage them to promote healthier living. Iman’s academic journey began with a foundation in Clinical Medicine at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. This led to a PhD in Computational and Fundamental Biology at the Laboratory of Genetic Metabolic Diseases (Lab GMZ) in Riekelt Houtkooper’s group, where she conducted aging research from 2020 to 2024. During this time, she led several projects that combined computational and experimental approaches to investigate mitochondrial function and stress responses in aging, using model organisms such as C. elegans and mice. Her passion for understanding mitochondrial dynamics and stress responses in health and aging continues to drive her research toward innovative solutions for promoting healthy living.