Research Division of Molecular Metabolism

Research interests

Mitochondria are often referred to as the "power plants" of the cell. They convert the energy found in food to ATP, the energy source of the cell. This process is essential to life and inherited errors in the mitochondria's ability to produce energy leads to serious and sometimes lethal diseases. Dysfunctional mitochondria have been implicated in a variety of hereditary diseases, normal ageing and age-related diseases. Many public health problems including diabetes, heart failure and Parkinsons disease involve dysfunctional mitochondria. Better understanding of how mitochondrial function is regulated can therefore be of great clinical value.

Our research focuses on the regulation of transcription and translation of mitochondrial DNA, how mitochondrial function is regulated, and what happens when the function of the mitochondria is disrupted.

The division has a close collaboration with the Centre for Inherited Metabolic Diseases at Karolinska University Hospital.

Research groups

Nils-Göran Larsson group
Maintenance and expression of mtDNA in disease and ageing.

Joanna Rorbach group
Post-transcriptional regulation in mitochondria.

Anna Wredenberg group
Mitochondrial metabolism in health and disease.

Roberta Filograna group
Mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease