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Kill the Expert

By far, the most popular, memorable and informative session at this conference! Ironically, “Kill the Expert” is also the most lively session. How does it work? We ask the experts to address a common simple question about mitochondria research methodology, such as their recommended way to quantify mitophagy or mitochondrial architecture, and we hope to get a simple answer. You will be surprised how difficult this task is for the moderator. For the risk of being killed by the expert, we have 2-3 moderators in parallel. Although most experts swear they will never volunteer to step on that stage ever again, they keep coming back.


In this conference we will address the following questions:


Assessing mtDNA Release -

Thursday December 7th 2:00 - 2:30PM


Panelists: 

Gerald Shadel, PhD | Professor | Salk Institute

Mark Hepokoski, MD | Professor | UC San Diego

Fernanda Cerqueira, PhD | Senior Scientist | Mitochondria Emotion Inc.


Interrogator:

Timonthy Shutt, PhD | Professor | University of Calgary


Questions:

  1. What is an accessible and reliable method to measure mtDNA release?

  2. What are reliable surrogate markers of mtDNA release?

  3. What are the common artifacts that may affect mtDNA release measurements?

  4. What would be a proper method to identify and convincingly demonstrate the mechanism of mtDNA release in one's experimental system?



Assessing Mitochondrial Fuel Preference and Utilization -

Thursday December 7th 5:30 - 6:00 PM


Panelist:

Thomas G. Graeber, PhD | Professor | UCLA

Ajit Divakaruni, PhD | Professor | UCLA

Tara TeSlaa, PhD | Professor | UCLA


Interrogator:

Orian Shirihai, MD, PhD | Professor | UCLA

Ambre Bertholet, PhD | Professor | UCLA


Questions:

  1. What is an accessible and reliable method to measure mitochondrial fuel preference?

  2. How does one differentiate between fuel preference and fuel dependency?

  3. Can metabolomics be used to study fuel preference, fuel utilization and fuel dependency?

  4. Can respirometry and mass spectrometry complement each other in the study of fuel preference, utilization, and dependency?


Mitochondria Motility -

Friday December 8th 4:50-5:35 PM


Panelist:

Gulcin Pekkurnaz, PhD | Professor | UC San Diego

Henry N. Higgs, PhD | Professor | Dartmouth College


Interrogator:

György Hajnóczky, MD, PhD | Professor | Thomas Jefferson University


Questions:

  1. What is an accessible and reliable method to measure mitochondrial motility in axons and non-neuronal cells?

  2. What are the essential positive and negative controls for increased and decreased motility?

  3. What are the common artifacts that may affect measurements of mitochondrial motility?

  4. What is an accessible and reliable image analysis method for quantifying mitochondrial motility?



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