Location: Hubbard Hall, Room 208

Join us for the Watkins Visiting Professor Series featuring Vamsi Mootha. Mootha will present the talk, "Mitochondria and oxygen: from evolutionary origins to human disease."

Vamsi Mootha, M.D., is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and directs a research laboratory based at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also professor of systems biology and medicine at Harvard Medical School and an institute member of the Broad Institute, where he is co-director of the metabolism program. Mootha's research is focused on mitochondria and his group has utilized tandem mass spectrometry, computation, and microscopy to define the 1000 proteins that comprise the mitochondrial proteome. He collaborates extensively with clinicians and researchers throughout the world, and together, has identified 20 disease genes that underlie severe mitochondrial diseases. Recently, his team has made the unexpected and seemingly paradoxical discovery that hypoxia, or low oxygen, can alleviate mitochondrial disease. His team has developed a number of computational tools that are used widely by the research community. Mootha has received a number of awards, including a 2004 MacArthur "Genius Grant," election to the National Academy of Sciences, and a Padma Shri from the Government of India.