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Open any basic biology textbook and you’ll find a similar description of mitochondria, the small ovoid organelles found in all eukaryotic cells. They are known as the “powerhouses” or “power plants” of the cell, generating the adenosine triphosphate (ATP), or chemical energy currency, a cell needs to keep it powered up and working. When György Hajnóczky, Director of the MitoCare Center for Mitochondrial Imaging Research and Diagnostics at Thomas Jefferson University, first started working with mitochondria as a medical student, this role was considered their main function.
“But when you sit at the microscope and watch the mitochondria, you see that they are always moving. It’s like dancing or a piece of art,” said Hajnóczky. “They come together, they seem to fuse with one another, they move apart. But they are always moving up and down and around. And it makes you wonder what they are doing and what it is doing for the cell.”
And with advances in microscopic imaging technologies, it became clear that mitochondrial fusion is a process vital to cell health, extending the mitochondria’s...