2003 Public Lecture Series
Through the Microscope: Imaging Life at the Cellular Level - Part 1
All living organisms are composed of cells, which are beautifully complex assemblies of molecular machines. The fuel (ATP) that powers this machinery is provided by mitochondria, the direct descendants of bacteria that invaded the first proto-eukaryotic cell 1.5 billion years ago. In fact, mitochondria are no longer symbiotic bacteria but are an integral part of our cells, participating in numerous processes besides ATP generation, including the cell death pathway. Mitochondria have a small genome that is strictly maternally inherited, and useful for forensic identification and tracking human origins ("mitochondrial Eve"). Defects in mitochondrial genes can lead to neuromuscular and metabolic disorders. At Wadsworth, a new imaging technology, electron tomography, is being used to determine the internal structure of mitochondria and changes associated with disease and cell death.
Carmen Mannella, Ph.D.
Dr. Mannella is director of Wadsworth Center's Division of Molecular Medicine, and co-director of Wadsworth's National Institutes of Health-funded national microscopy resource. His own research uses 3D electron microscopy to explore the internal structure of the cell, focusing on the cell's power plant, the mitochondrion. This work is leading to a new appreciation of the complexity and dynamics of mitochondrial architecture and how it can influence energy production. Dr. Mannella is a professor and past chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the School of Public Health, University at Albany. In 1991 he established a popular summer training program for undergraduates, with funding from the National Science Foundation. He received a doctorate in biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania and was a National Cancer Institute postdoctoral fellow at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.