Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Researchers Develop New Tool to Check Cells’ ‘Batteries’

April 8, 2014 By University of Virginia

Researchers at U.Va.'s School of Medicine have created a method to illuminate and understand mitochondria in living creatures like never before.Under the microscope, they glow like streetlights, forming tidy rows that follow the striations of muscle tissue. They are mitochondria – the powerhouses of cells – and researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have created a method to illuminate and understand them in living creatures like never before.

Not only can the researchers make the mitochondria glow for the microscope, but they also can discern from that fluorescence the mitochondria’s age, their health, even their stress level. And ultimately that glow, in its soft reds and greens, will shed light on human health and a massive array of illnesses, from diabetes to Parkinson’s disease to cancer.

“Mitochondrial health is important for physiology and disease. That is well-known,” said researcher Zhen Yan of U.Va.’s Cardiovascular Research Center. “However, the whole field of mitochondrial health is largely unexplored, in large part because of the lack of useful tools. This has hindered the understanding of the importance of mitochondria in disease development.

“With this study we have, for the first time, shown that we can use a reporter gene to measure mitochondrial health robustly in vivo. We believe this tool will allow us to get into the field of mitochondrial biology like never before. Before, we could see the mitochondria under an electron microscope. That showed us only what they looked like. Now we can measure the health of millions of mitochondria at the click of a button.”

The reporter gene on which Yan and his team based the new tool is a type of gene used in scientific research to determine the activity and function of other genes. The reporter gene produces a protein that glows green when newly made; the protein then transitions to red as it ages. By giving the reporter gene specific targeting directions, the researchers were able to instruct the protein to enter the mitochondria, setting them aglow.

“So now we have fluorescent mitochondria, which are fluorescent green initially and then, as the mitochondria age or become oxidized, they transition to red, so that we can assess the oxidation status,” said Rhianna Laker, a postdoctoral fellow in Yan’s lab and the lead author of a new paper detailing the work.

The researchers have put their tool to the test in flies, worms and mice. They found that mice fed a high-fat diet had more red mitochondria, meaning the mitochondria were stressed or oxidized, while mice that exercised had more green mitochondria, Laker said. That finding speaks both to the importance of exercise and to the potential diagnostic power of the new tool, dubbed the MitoTimer.

Yan’s lab collaborated with Jeff Saucerman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering to take the work to the next level. Saucerman’s team has developed a computer program that can analyze the degree of mitochondrial fluorescence to assess both individual mitochondria and the overall ratio of red to green in a particular area. That ratio speaks to the health of the cells.

The mitochondria are also a sensor of metabolic state and stress, Yan said.

The findings have been published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and will appear in a forthcoming print edition. The article’s authors are Laker, Peng Xu, Karen A. Ryall, Alyson Sujkowski, Brandon M. Kenwood, Kristopher H. Chain, Mei Zhang, Mary A. Royal, Kyle L. Hoehn, Monica Dirscoll, Paul N. Adler, Robert J. Wessells, Saucerman and Yan.

Related Articles Read More >

Prix Galien USA 2022 nominees
The 24 best medical device innovations of 2022
A portrait of Ellen Roche, MIT School of Engineering associate professor
New implant design prevents scar tissue without drugs, MIT says
UMN artificial blood vessel clinical trial
Minnesota researchers awarded $3.7M grant for artificial, bioengineered blood vessel clinical trial
CeQur Simplicity
CeQur is launching a discreet, convenient ‘wearable insulin pen’

DeviceTalks Weekly.

August 12, 2022
DTW – Medtronic’s Mauri brings years of patient care to top clinical, regulatory, scientific post
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech