Uncovering Modern Views on an Ancient Organelle

Uncovering Modern Views on an Ancient Organelle

Featured Speaker: Danielle Grotjahn

The mitochondrion is considered the most ancient organelle and is famous for generating energy to power all cells in the body and to play a crucial role in sensing when a cell is not functioning properly and deciding whether it will continue to live or be programmed to die. Professor Grotjahn’s lab is studying this decision-making process by investigating how mitochondria change shape in response to different cellular conditions. Her lab applies this method to understand how mitochondria shape-shift in diseases like neurodegeneration and cancer to develop new ways to treat or prevent diseases associated with mitochondrial dysfunction.

Presenter Biography

Danielle Grotjahn received her BS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her doctorate at The Scripps Research Institute. During her graduate studies, Grotjahn became an expert at revealing detailed pictures of tiny
cellular compartments using sophisticated microscopes and computational programs. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research.

Coordinator: Marlene Rayner