Treating the Bioenergetics of Age-driven Neurodegeneration with CoQ10 Headgroup Precursors

Our lab's vision is to make fundamental discoveries that change the way we understand the living world and improve the outcomes of patients. 

Michael Pacold, MD, PhD is a physician-scientist at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Langone Health. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, and grew up in the Chicago area. He obtained undergraduate degrees in chemistry and biology at Indiana University – Bloomington, a PhD from the University of Cambridge for research at the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Biology, and a MD from Harvard Medical School. After an internship in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and residency in Radiation Oncology at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, he did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute at MIT and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. At NYU, he directs a lab that develops novel metabolomics tools to study the growth of tumors in nutrient and oxygen-limiting environments. He also maintains a clinical practice in CNS Radiation Oncology.

The brain relies on mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell, to produce energy that we require to live and to think. Loss of brain mitochondrial function occurs in neurodegenerative diseases, but it is not clear if this is a cause or effect of neurodegeneration. Until recently, it has been difficult to test this hypothesis due to our inability to augment mitochondrial function. Oue potential way for doing this for improving mitochondrial function is improving the mitochondrial supply or turnover of cofactors - organic and inorganic molecules that accelerate chemical reactions, including those needed for generating energy, and quench reactive oxygen species within the mitochondrion. We will test if promoting  cofactor delivery to the mitochondrion improves mitochondrial function and alters the trajectory of mouse models of neurodegenerative disease, with the ultimate goal of translating our work to patients.

"Innovation and impact begin with discovering that which is good, true, and beautiful, continue by revealing the reality of the world through motivation and experiment, and result in new, fundamental knowledge that is applied in the service of humanity."