Keynote Presentation by Prof. Wallace: A Mitochondrial Etiology of the Common Complex Diseases

The Organizing Committee of Targeting Mitochondria 2019 congress is honoured to announce that Prof. Douglas Wallace will be joining us for our 10th Anniversary Edition of Targeting Mitochondria World Congress, which will be held in Berlin on October 28th-29th, 2019.

Prof. Douglas Wallace, Member of the National Academy of Science since 1995, is Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Human Genetics, at the University of Pennsylvania and the founding director of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Over the past 45 years Wallace has introduced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genetics into medicine thus founding the field of Mitochondrial Genetic Medicine. In 1975, Wallace and associates showed that genetic factors could be inherited though the cytoplasm with the cytoplasmic transfer of chloramphenicol resistance. In 1980 he demonstrated that the human mtDNA is maternally inherited and in 1988 he was the first to identify an inherited human mtDNA disease, Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). Since then hundreds of mtDNA variants have been linked to disease, see MITOMAP.org. By surveying mtDNA variation in indigenous populations around the world, Wallace and his associates were able to exploit the maternal transmission of the mtDNA to reconstruct the origin and ancient migrations of women. Subsequent studies revealed that the geographic specificity of mtDNA types was the result of environmental selection and that these “adaptive” mtDNA variants can become maladaptive in new environments generating the common variants of common diseases.

At our 10th Anniversary World Congress on Targeting Mitochondria Prof. Wallace will give a Keynote Presentation titled “A Mitochondrial Etiology of the Common Complex Diseases”.

For more information about Targeting Mitochondria 2019: https://targeting-mitochondria.com