News and Events

2005 Media Releases

UNDERSTANDING THIS JEKYLL AND HYDE IN OUR BODIES

Mitochondria, say La Trobe University researchers, Drs Mike Ryan and Ann Frazier, are the Jekyll and Hyde of our bodies.

Mitochondria are organelles, highly specialised structures essential to the viability of our cells—but their activity can be both good and bad.

They play a fundamental role in providing energy for the cell but they also contain proteins that can be ‘poisonous’ and, when released, can cause the death of the cell.

Dr Ryan and Dr Frazier, of La Trobe’s School of Molecular Sciences, have embarked on a four-year research project aimed at improving understanding of the machinery by which mitochondria operate.

There are many important long term implications in this work, including the treatment and possible prevention of mitochondrial disorders as well as Parkinson’s diseases and some forms of cancer.

Dr Frazier, an American biochemist who completed her PhD in Germany, recently won a Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) fellowship to perform research in Dr Ryan’s laboratory.

The goal of the Fellowship is to promote the development of a global network of talented young scientists by enabling postdoctoral fellows to obtain training in a new area of research in an ‘outstanding laboratory’ in another country.

Dr Frazier opted to use the grant from the Strasbourg-based organisation to work at La Trobe. She had previously collaborated with Dr Ryan while working in Germany and visited his laboratory last year as part of an ARC-Linkage International grant awarded to Dr Ryan.

As well as the HSFP grant, Dr Frazier has also won a La Trobe University postdoctoral fellowship. ‘The La Trobe fellowship scheme is an excellent initiative by the University and I am very grateful for the award,’ Dr Frazier said. A combination of these grants will extend her work at Bundoora to at least four years.

She and Dr Ryan, a senior lecturer who specialises in mitochondrial biogenesis, explain that mitochondria are like energizers in our cells. ‘They are complex because they not only grow and divide, but they also fuse together. These morphology changes are important for supplying energy to all parts of the cell,’ Dr Ryan says.

‘We are looking at the machinery involved in how they divide and how they distribute themselves inside our cells. If we know the basics, we can understand how changes in mitochondrial morphology occur in more specialised cells. For example, sperm cells contain fused mitochondria that wrap around the base of the tail and supply energy for their swimming,’ Dr Ryan said.

Here is where the Jekyll and Hyde factor emerges because while the body benefits from the energy provided by mitochondria, it suffers when they play their other role—causing cell death. Regulated cell death is important during embryonic development and in removing old cells in our bodies as new ones are made. The problem is that cancers also form when not enough cell death takes place. There is evidence that cell death is caused by changes in the morphology of mitochondria.

Dr Ryan’s team also collaborates with researchers from Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) with the aim of helping the one in 5,000 babies born worldwide with a mitochondrial disease.

Such diseases are classified as energy generation disorders and result in babies being unable to sufficiently utilise their muscles and nerves. There are also common neurodegenerative disorders associated with abnormal mitochondrial metabolism, often resulting in a fatal outcome.

The La Trobe team is working with Dr David Thorburn of RCH’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, examining skin cells from patients with mitochondrial disease to determine which defects are present. Both aspects of mitochondrial biogenesis are funded by separate grants from the National Health & Medical Research Council.

For further information:

Please contact Dr Mike Ryan, Tel: (03) 9479 2156; or La Trobe University Media and Publications Office, Tel: (03) 9479 2316.