Vamsi Mootha

Biography

My laboratory, based at the Massachusetts General Hospital, applies a mix of genomics, computation, and biochemical physiology to systematically study mitochondrial biology. Our work has helped uncover more than a dozen Mendelian mitochondrial disease genes, led to the discovery that mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with the common form of type 2 diabetes mellitus and to the identification of the molecular component of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter. It has also led to the development of generic computational strategies that have now been applied successfully to other human diseases. I am an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Professor of systems biology and of medicine at Harvard Medical School. I received my MD (cum laude) from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, where my thesis research focused on mitochondrial energetics. Following an internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, I pursued postdoctoral training in genomics at the Whitehead Institute. I have received a number of honors, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Judson Daland Prize of the American Philosophical Society, the Keilin Medal of the Biochemical Society, a Padma Shri from the Government of India, and election to the National Academy of Sciences.

Research Interest

Genomics, computation, and biochemical physiology, mitochondrial biology