Mitochondria are double-membrane-bound organelles that are essential for cellular energy production. A fundamental question in eukaryotic cell biology is how the biogenesis of mitochondria is achieved and regulated.

线粒体是细胞的关键部分，其核心作用是以适合许多生物过程的形式产生能量。它们还参与细胞程序性死亡，并维持细胞内适当的钙水平。这些活动需要线粒体与细胞核进行通讯。线粒体功能的破坏可能导致一系列人类疾病，包括糖尿病、神经退行性疾病、肥胖、癌症和过早衰老。因此，需要对线粒体的基本过程有充分的了解，以确定线粒体功能障碍的原因和后果，并使我们能够设计新的治疗方法来弥补或纠正这种缺陷。这个项目将研究线粒体是如何形成的，以及它们的功能如何响应细胞在生长和发育过程中不断变化的要求。我们已经发现，营养的可获得性对线粒体功能有显着影响，因此我们计划扩大这项工作，并测试其在小鼠疾病中的适用性，以期在人类身上设计和实施临床试验。

Mitochondria are key parts of the cell whose central role is to produce energy in a suitable form for many biological processes. They are also involved in programmed cell death, and in maintaining appropriate levels of calcium in cells. These activities require mitochondria to communicate with the cell nucleus. Disruption of mitochondrial function can lead to a broad range of human diseases including diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, obesity, cancer and premature ageing. Therefore, a full understanding of the basic processes in mitochondria is needed to identify the causes and consequences of mitochondrial malfunction and to enable us to design new therapies that compensate for or correct such faults. This programme will study how mitochondria are made and how their function responds to the changing requirements of the cell during growth and development. Already we have found that nutrient availability has a marked impact on mitochondrial function and so we plan to extend this work and test its applicability to diseases in mice with a view to designing and implementing clinical trials in humans.