Mitochondrial medicine

Excerpt

Almost 50 years after the first description of a patient with a mitochondrial disease (Luft et al. 1962), there now is an extraordinarily rapid development in mitochondrial medicine. In the first 30 years of mitochondrial disease research, the focus was centered on unravelling the aetiology of the high variety of manifestations of mitochondrial dysfunction. Currently, one of the most important focuses is on providing a cure for these devastating diseases. In the first chapter of this issue, Salvatore DiMauro will guide you through the history of mitochondrial medicine, chronologically discussing important discoveries and dedicated mitochondriacs diseases (DOI: 10.​1007/​s10545-010-9082-x). Besides the ongoing development of new techniques to study mitochondrial (patho)physiology, genetics and organelle dynamics, it is the individual patients that taught us most about the physiology of the mitochondria. …