Interview with Dr. Amutha Boominathan
Recently, we had the chance to interview Dr. Boominathan, from the SENS Research Foundation at the Ending Age Related Diseases 2019 Conference. She spoke about her research into mitochondrial repair therapies and the value of animal model research.
Amutha Boominathan earned her MSc in Biochemistry and PhD in Biochemistry at the National Chemical Laboratory and University of Pune, both in India. She then went on to complete postdoctoral research in the U.S. related to mitochondrial biogenesis, at Rutgers University and U. Penn. As part of her postdoctoral Fellowship with the American Heart Association, she has studied extensively mechanisms of mitochondrial fusion and fission, Fe-S biosynthesis and protein import to mitochondria.
Amutha currently leads the MitoSENS Program at SENS Research Foundation, Mountain View, California. Her research group focuses on understanding mitochondrial DNA mutations (mtDNA), and restoring functionality lost as a result by using allotopic expression mitochondrial genes. Inherited mutations in mtDNA can lead to severe and debilitating conditions such as NARP syndrome, Leigh’s Syndrome and MELAS. MtDNA mutations can accumulate over time, even in healthy individuals. MitoSENS has successfully expressed the ATP8 gene with their method. They are now aiming to tackle each of the mitochondrial protein genes over the next few years. Its aim is to develop safe, effective gene therapies for mitochondrial dysfunction.
Source:
https://www.leafscience.org/an-interview-with-dr-amutha-boominathan/
