Genomics approaches to mitochondrial biology and disease | Professor Vamsi Mootha 

This keynote was filmed at Metabolism Day on March 14, 2023 at the University of Copenhagen. Metabolism Day is a conference about energy control and metabolism, and is hosted by the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR). For more information please visit: cbmr.ku.dk
Vamsi Mootha is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Institute Member of the Broad Institute, and a Professor of Systems Biology and of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory is dual localized in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and in the Metabolism Program at the Broad Institute.
Dr. Mootha leads a research team dedicated to mitochondrial biology. The long-term goal of his research group is to apply the new tools of genomics and systems biology to investigate fundamental mitochondrial bioenergetics both in health and in disease. Dr. Mootha received his B.S. (with honors, with distinction) in Mathematical and Computational Science at Stanford University. He then received his M.D. (cum laude) from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, where his thesis research focused on mitochondrial energetics. Following an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, he worked as a Visiting Scientist at MDS Proteomics in Odense, Denmark, followed by postdoctoral training in genomics at the Whitehead Institute.
His research team includes biologists, computer scientists, and clinicians that work closely together. His work has led to the full characterization of the mitochondrial proteome, identification of over 20 disease genes, discovery of all the components of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter, and the unexpected discovery that hypoxia - low ambient oxygen - can buffer against many forms of mitochondrial defects. He and his team have developed computational tools that are widely used in genomics. Dr. Mootha has received a number of honors, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Judson Daland Prize of the American Philosophical Society, the Keilin Medal of the Biochemical Society, the King Faisal International Prize in Science, a Padma Shri from the Government of India, and election to the National Academy of Sciences.