Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Universal Driver for Increased Health Risks: from COVID to COSMOS

Drs. Afshin Beheshti, Sonja Best, and Keshav Singh from COV-IRT and members from NIH, NASA, and DoD are organizing a mitochondrial focused meeting for December 2nd and 3rd, 2021!! This will be the first inter-agency meeting to discuss the relevance of mitochondrial biology to multiple health states and diseases. The meeting is called “Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Universal Driver for Increased Health Risks: from COVID to COSMOS”. It is hosted by NASA, NIH (i.e. NCI, NIAID, NIBIB, NCATS), and DOD/DTRA.

The meeting is split up into four sessions over two days with the following main topics:

  1. Mitochondrial impact on immune function and inflammation
  2. Impact of viral and bacterial pathogenesis on mitochondria
  3. Mitochondria in space and other unique environments, and
  4. Preventative and therapeutics impact on bioenergetics and mitochondria impact with disease progression.

The registration link is here.

The agenda for the meeting is here:

DAY 1 – 12/2/2021

11:00am – 11:05am: Introduction by organizers

11:05am – 12:00pm: Keynote talk: “A Mitochondrial Etiology of Common Diseases: Therapeutic Implications” – Douglas Wallace, PhD – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

12:00pm – 2:00pm: First Session: Mitochondrial impact on immune function and inflammation

  • 12:00pm – 12:30pm: “Mitochondria in Age, Obesity, and Cancer” – Marcia C. Haigis, PhD – Harvard Medical School
  • 12:30pm – 1:00pm: “Nuclear sensing of mtDNA breaks primes immune surveillance” – Agnel Sfeir, PhD: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • 1:00pm – 1:30pm: “Mitochondrial impact on epigenetics: implications for disease and aging” – Janine Santos, PhD – NIEHS/NIH
  • 1:30pm – 2:00pm: “Failures in the healing cycle and mitochondria: a common denominator in chronic illness and aging” – Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD – University of California, San Diego

2:00pm – 2:15pm: Break

2:15pm – 4:15pm: Second Session: Impact of viral and bacterial pathogenesis on mitochondria

  • 2:15pm – 2:45pm: “Mitochondrial stress as an architect of host: bacterial interactions” – Mary O’Riordan, PhD – University of Michigan Medical School
  • 2:45pm – 3:15pm: “Flavivirus manipulation of mitophagy as a driver of inflammation” – Sonja Best, PhD – NIAID/NIH
  • 3:15pm – 3:45pm: “SARS-CoV2 hijacking of mitochondria in COVID-19 pathogenesis” – Keshav Singh, PhD – University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • 3:45pm – 4:15pm: “How microRNAs drive mitochondrial suppression with COVID-19” – Afshin Beheshti, PhD – KBR at NASA Ames Research Center, Broad Institute, COV-IRT

4:15pm – 4:30pm: Break

4:30pm -5:00pm: Discussion Session Day 1: Current priorities and knowledge gaps in mitochondrial research

Panelists:

5:00pm – 5:05pm: Closing remarks by organizers

DAY 2 – 12/3/2021

11:00am – 11:05am: Introduction by organizers

11:05am – 12:00pm: Keynote talk: “Label-free, non-destructive imaging of mitochondrial function: from organelles to humans” – Irene Georgakoudi, PhD – Tufts University

12:00pm – 2:00pm: Third Session: Mitochondria in space and other unique environments

  • 12:00pm – 12:30pm: “Mitochondrial regulation with astronauts” – Christopher Mason, PhD – Weill Cornell Medicine
  • 12:30pm – 1:00pm: “Meta-analysis of the first 15 Arabidopsis spaceflight response transcriptome reveals changes to gene expression patterns related to mitochondrial and chloroplast carbon metabolism” – Richard Barker, PhD – The University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • 1:00pm – 1:30pm: “Rewiring of Mitochondria in Space” – Nukhet Aykin-Burns, PhD – University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  • 1:30pm – 2:00pm: “Mitochondrial function in extreme environments: Lessons from studies on embryos of annual killifish” – Jason E Podrabsky, PhD – Portland State University

2:00pm – 2:15pm: Break

2:15pm – 4:15pm: Fourth Session: Preventative and therapeutics impact on bioenergetics and mitochondria impact with disease progression

  • 2:15pm – 2:45pm: “Nutritional and nutraceutical approaches to increase mitochondrial function across healthspan” – Andy Philp, PhD – Garvan Institute
  • 2:45pm – 3:15pm: “Improvements in Bioenergetics with Technology” – John Rogers, PhD – Northwestern
  • 3:15pm – 3:45pm: “Mitochondria as a target of Metformin” – Navdeep Chandel, PhD – Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine
  • 3:45pm – 4:15pm: “Advanced Computational Modeling of Mitochondrial Metabolic Responses during Infection and Ionizing Radiation”- Josep Bassaganya-Riera, PhD – Bioetherapeutics Inc

4:15pm – 4:30pm: Break

4:30pm – 5:00pm: Discussion Session Day 2: Current mitochondrial therapeutics and countermeasures to be further explored

Panelists:

5:00pm – 5:05pm: Closing remarks by organizers

 

This meeting is jointly organized between:

  • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
  • The National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at NIH
  • The National Cancer Institute (NCI) at NIH
  • The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at NIH
  • The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) within the Department of Defense (DoD)

Meeting organizers (in alphabetical order):

  • Afshin Beheshti (KBR/NASA/COV-IRT)
  • Sonja Best (NIAID/NIH)
  • Lisa Carnell (NASA)
  • S Robin Elgart (NASA)
  • Dan Gallahan (NCI/NIH)
  • Lucie Low (NCATS/NIH)
  • Heather Meeks (DOD/Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA))
  • Keshav Singh (The University of Alabama at Birmingham)
  • Dan Xi (NCI/NIH)
  • Steve Zullo (NIBIB/NIH)