Mitochondrial PsychoBiology Lab

Life emerges from the organized flow of energy through biological systems. Energy flow through our cells is largely driven by mitochondria, which in turn give us the ability to sense and perceive, integrate information, and adapt to stressors. 

Our team integrates knowledge from mitochondrial biology, stress neuroendocrinology, aging, computational social neuroscience, network science, and mitochondrial medicine to understand principles of mitochondrial communication and signal transduction. ​We develop new laboratory assays and omics-based computational approaches to explain how psychological states influence biological and energetic processes within mitochondria, and in turn how mitochondria influence mental and physiological functions. 

Together with our collaborators, we deploy our mitochondrial phenotyping platform to map sex differences and inter-individual variations in mitochondrial health, to understand mitochondrial plasticity over time, and to map their role in the
​maintenance of human health and aging. 

​Our goal is to discover bioenergetic mechanisms of brain-body communication and to use this knowledge to develop an integrative model of human health that can help transform medicine.​

Principal Investigator

Research Staff