Posts by Vamsi K. Mootha, MD
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High-Throughput DNA Sequencing at Single-Cell Level Provides Insight into Mitochondrial Disease
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have become the first to quantify the percentage of pathogenic mitochondrial DNA in thousands of individual cells of different types, laying the groundwork for investigations into new therapies for mitochondrial diseases.
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Imbalance of Electrons in the Liver May Be A Risk Factor for Many Common Diseases
A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital uncovered a connection between an imbalance of electrons in liver cells and many metabolic problems that increase the risk for conditions such as cardiovascular disease and fatty liver disease.
Biography
Vamsi Mootha is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Professor of Systems Biology and of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory is based in the Department of Molecular Biology and Center for Genome Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Mootha leads a research team dedicated to mitochondrial biology.
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 pursued postdoctoral training in genomics at the Whitehead Institute.
His research group consists of clinicians, computer scientists, and biologists, who work collaboratively to elucidate the network properties of mitochondria, and how these properties go awry in human disease. His work has led to the discovery of nearly 20 Mendelian disease genes, to the discovery that mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with the common form of type 2 diabetes mellitus, and to the discovery of all of the molecular components of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter. His team has also developed generic, computational tools that have been widely used in biomedical research.
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, a Padma Shri from the Government of India, and election to the National Academy of Sciences.
Mass General Cancer Center
An integral part of one of the world’s most distinguished academic medical centers, the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center is among the leading cancer care providers in the United States.
