Attenuated mitochondrial respiratory capacity is a major predictor of all-cause mortality. Congruently, dysfunction of mitochondrial processes associates with the development and exacerbation of several diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and type 2 diabetes. One highly regulated aspect of mitochondrial function that remains poorly understood is metabolite flux across the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM). The IMM is impermeable and metabolite entry or export relies on select membrane bound transport proteins. Gene sequence homology and predicted protein structure reveal the Solute Carrier Family 25 A (SLC25A) as a class of transmembrane bound carrier proteins that are localized to the IMM. However, several of these important proteins remain poorly or completely uncharacterized, thereby leaving many unknowns as to how metabolites enter or exit the mitochondria. This is important to understand as mitochondrial derived metabolites are critical signals within the cell for several processes including cellular signaling, stress response, and cell death. This seminar will cover mitochondrial metabolite fluxes and their regulation of cellular functions.

Tony Verkerke is an Instructor in Shingo Kajimura’s lab at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He attended University of Michigan for his undergraduate studies where he studied muscle biology in Greg Cartee’s lab. For his PhD, Tony worked in Katsu Funai’s lab at University of Utah where he identified that the efficiency of calcium cycling in skeletal muscle regulates muscle energy expenditure. As a postdoctoral fellow, Tony has been working to better understand mitochondrial metabolite flux and its role in cell biology.