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So mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. We each have hundreds of them in each one of our cells. Every cell in
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our body gets its energy, which is what it uses to function from the mitochondria. And so there's been a lot
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of research into the relationship between mitochondria and aging. And that dysfunctional mitochondria may actually
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be a key driver for many diseases including many cancers, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, features of autism,
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muscle tissues being weak, etc. So as the cells get older and the mitochondria stop working, we make new mitochondria.
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But over time, the DNA degrades and the mitochondria become less effective and there are fewer functional mitochondria
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per cell. There are three papers that I wanted to just highlight that kind of follow an interesting theme. The first
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one was from 2023 from WashU in St. Louis. These folks identified and demonstrated that mitochondria can
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actually transfer from one cell to another. So, if you've got a cell that's got damaged or dysfunctional
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mitochondria, they've identified three mechanisms by which mitochondria can move into a cell that needs more
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mitochondria that are working and are more functional. And as a result, it can rejuvenate or provide energy to a
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dysfunctional cell, which might improve dysfunctional tissue or improve disease.
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The second paper was done out of Colombia University, and this was the first mapping of the mitochondria in the
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human brain. And so these folks created 703 tiny cubes of brain from a person that passed away, a 54 year old donor.
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And then they analyzed the mitochondria in each of those cubes. And they use that to make a map of mitochondria in
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the brain. And what it showed was that different parts of the brain, different cells had different amounts of
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mitochondria and different mitochondrial function which actually starts to highlight how that difference in energy
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production in different cells in different parts of the brain may actually cause some of the things like
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memory loss or speech impairment that the mitochondrial dysfunction in the brain might actually be the key driver
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of that aging symptomology. The third paper which just came out came out of a team at Shang University in China. They
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took stem cells and they figured out a way to treat the stem cells so that those stem cells would start to make an
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excess amount of mitochondria than they normally would make. So they created highly energetic mitochondria and they
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made a lot of them. And the idea that we can put mitochondria into our body or into tissue in our body to heal it or
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repair it has been something that folks have been trying to do research around for a long time. But the limiting factor
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is access to enough mitochondria. So this mechanism that they developed opens up the door to this whole new
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therapeutic modality, a new type of therapy called midotherapy or mitochondrial therapy that based on the
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series of papers that we're seeing coming out recently, I believe could end up becoming a really incredible new
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therapy that may ultimately lead to the treatment for many diseases that we're kind of dealing with right