Big Think

Question: Why do you consider yourself a Mitochondriac?

Dr. Yvonne Will:  It's an obsession. <Laughs> Well you know, I mean so mitochondria makes 95 percent of your energy right?  So if your mitochondria don’t work, you'll not be smiling at me.  You'll not be getting off this chair.  You'll not be hearing what I'm saying right?  So these are hallmarks of mitochondria dysfunction.  And they lead to organ toxicity and disability.  And so knowing that you know, drugs can target mitochondria and that I can actually screen for that and you know, prevent that so I can choose compounds that work, but they don't have these liabilities.  And I think there's-- so I think the reason why people didn’t know about it is because it is such a, you know, complicated little bugger, with so many different mechanisms.  It's very, very complex.  So that you know, when I say it's job security, it's true, because we are just at a rudimentary understanding you know, of what they actually do.  But we do know if they don't work, we're in big trouble. So it seems like I've done this for 15 years and every year I learn something new and it just never stops.  It's challenging every day.

Recorded on: 06/25/2008