New Research Project: Engineering New Mitochondrial Genes to Restore Mitochondrial Function

Over the next weeks, we are happy to introduce the research projects we are supporting in 2020 to accelerate the availability of human rejuvenation therapies.

Starting with Dr. Amutha Boominathan’s work on engineering new mitochondrial genes to restore mitochondrial function – a true flagship project of the SENS Research Foundation:

The accumulation of dysfunctional mitochondria with severe mutations in their mitochondrial DNA is a significant consequence of aging and is implicated in age-related diseases as well as in several currently incurable inherited mitochondrial disorders.
The SENS Research Foundation Mitochondria Group’s primary goal is to find ways to rescue mutations in mitochondrial DNA. Their main approach is to re-engineer mitochondrial genes and place them in the nucleus.

The team has had phenomenal success in rescuing cells derived from a patient by expressing two re-engineered genes simultaneously and have recently published this work, which covers the mitochondrial genes ATP6 and ATP8, in Nucleic Acids Research.