Navdeep S. Chandel, PhD

The David W. Cugell Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Chandel and his research team have shown that mitochondria do much more than supply energy to cells. Their research has revealed how mitochondria function as signaling organelles that control the body’s normal functions and impact diseases, including cancer and inflammation.

“Mitochondrial signals are critical regulators and unraveling their complex functions could advance the design of new therapies.”

-Dr. Chandel

Vamsi Mootha, MD

Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, investigator in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital, institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and professor of Systems Biology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School

His laboratory team combines genomics and computation with classic biochemistry and physiology to gain a holistic view of the genes and proteins relevant to mitochondrial function. Although mitochondria contain their own DNA that encodes just 13 proteins, the Mootha research team has identified the other 99% of mitochondrial proteins encoded by nuclear DNA and compiled their findings in a widely used reference tool used to discover new protein functions and disease genes.

“We think we have uncovered an extremely deep and profound interaction between mitochondria and environmental oxygen. We’re now trying to harness hypoxia as a medicine for both rare and common forms of mitochondrial dysfunction.”

— Dr. Mootha