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，其核心作用是为许多生物过程以合适的形式产生能量。它们还参与程序性细胞死亡，并维持细胞中适当的钙水平。这些活动需要线粒体与细胞核沟通。线粒体功能的破坏可导致广泛的人类疾病，包括糖尿病、神经退行性疾病、肥胖、癌症和早衰。因此，需要充分了解线粒体的基本过程，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补偿或纠正这些错误。本课程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需求。我们已经发现营养物质的可用性对线粒体功能有显著的影响，因此我们计划扩展这项工作，并在小鼠身上测试其对疾病的适用性，以期设计和实施人体临床试验。

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.