Conference Description
The Mitochondria in Health and Disease GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. The conference program includes a diverse range of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, concentrating on the latest developments in the field. The conference is five days long and held in a remote location to increase the sense of camaraderie and create scientific communities, with lasting collaborations and friendships. In addition to premier talks, the conference has designated time for poster sessions from individuals of all career stages, and afternoon free time and communal meals allow for informal networking opportunities with leaders in the field.
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.
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.
The topics, speakers, and discussion leaders for the conference sessions are displayed below. The conference chair is currently developing their detailed program, which will include the complete meeting schedule, as well as the talk titles for all speakers. The detailed program will be available by November 23, 2024. Please check back for updates.
Mitochondrial Response to Stress in Different Cellular Contexts
Discussion Leaders
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Johannes Herrmann (University of Kaiserslautern, Germany)
Speakers
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Aleksandra Trifunovic (University of Cologne, Germany)
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Konstanze Winklhofer (Institute for Biochemistry and Pathobiochemistry, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany)
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Patrick Chinnery (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Mitochondria at the Heart of the Matter
Discussion Leaders
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Luca Scorrano (University of Padua, Italy)
Speakers
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Alex Chia Yu Chang (Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China)
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Anna Zoccarato (King's College London, United Kingdom)
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John Elrod (Temple University, United States)
Mitochondria in Environmental Health
Discussion Leaders
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Laurie Sanders (Duke University, United States)
Speakers
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Joel Meyer (Duke University, United States)
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Phillip West (The Jackson Laboratory, United States)
(Un)conventional Mitochondrial Signaling
Discussion Leaders
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Jose Antonio Enriquez (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III, Spain)
Speakers
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Kivanc Birsoy (The Rockefeller University, United States)
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Lena Ho (Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore)
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Andres Norambuena (University of Virginia, United States)
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María Mittelbrunn (Molecular Biology Center “Severo Ochoa”, CSIC, Spain)
Maintaining Mitochondrial DNA Integrity and Function
Discussion Leaders
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Maria Eugenia Soriano (University of Padova, Italy)
Speakers
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Laurie Sanders (Duke University, United States)
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Carolyn Suzuki (Rutgers- New Jersey Medical School, United States)
Lost in (Mitochondrial) Translation
Discussion Leaders
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Carlos Moraes (University of Miami, United States)
Speakers
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Antoni Barrientos (Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, United States)
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Hana Antonicka (McGill University, Canada)
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Joanna Rorbach (Karolinska Institute, Sweden)
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Peter Rehling (University Medical Center Gottingen, Germany)
Mitochondria and AI: What We Can Learn From New Computational Approaches
Discussion Leaders
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Jared Rutter (University of Utah, United States)
Speakers
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Fabiana Perocchi (HMGU, Germany)
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Gyorgy Hajnoczky (Thomas Jefferson University, United States)
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Aleksandra Filipovska (University of Western Australia, Australia)
Unresolved Questions in Mitochondrial Biology
Discussion Leaders
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Aleksandra Trifunovic (University of Cologne, Germany)
Speakers
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Jose Antonio Enriquez (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III, Spain)
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Cristina Ugalde (Center for Biological Research (CIB-CSIC), Spain)
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Nils-Goran Larsson (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden)
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Alessandra Boletta (San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy)
Practical Applications of Mitochondrial Biology
Discussion Leaders
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Rita Horvath (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Speakers
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David Lynch (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, United States)
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Valerio Carelli (University of Bologna, IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna, Program in Neurogenetics, Italy)