Determination of mitochondrial lipid packing in healthy and cancerous cell lines

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Regulation of mitochondrial apoptosis is essential for physiological development and tissue health inmammalian cells. Diverging from programmed cell death can lead to an array of complications including, but not limited to, cancer. However, this apoptotic mechanism can be exploited to specifically target the mitochondria of cancerous cells, while leaving surrounding healthy cells unscathed. Conventional cancer treatments use highly cytotoxic agents in combination with radiation therapy that act on both cancerous and non-cancerous cells eliminating or reducing tumor growth. Unfortunately, these traditional methods and drugs (e.g., DNA intercalating agents) are genotoxic and have the potential to lead to the manifestation of additional cancers later in life. Thus, a fundamental understanding of similarities and differences in mitochondria can provide health researchers the necessary foundation to develop more effective anti-cancer agents.We propose to use very small angle neutron scattering (vSANS) to compare the mitochondrial structure of healthy and cancerous mitochondria from multiple cell types. vSANS offers many advantages for the study of biological systems as neutron scattering is sensitive to light elements commonly found in lipids in biological membranes. Further, the use of vSANS will allow for the direct observation of mitochondria from the molecular organization to their full size (2 microns) in their native aqueous environment.This project will answer key questions about composition and structural differences between healthy andcancer cells ultimately stimulating a new application and research avenue for SANS to shed light on themechanism of cancer therapeutics.