Two-Step Tag-Free Isolation of Mitochondria for Improved Protein Discovery and Quantification

Our lab studies changes in mitochondria and energy metabolism and how these impact both healthy and pathological processes like immune activation, cancer, or metabolic disorders. Our aim is to help to develop new treatments to a wide variety of disorders by providing a better understanding of mitochondrial function and energy metabolism. Tools such as mass spectrometry based proteomics, metabolomics, and CRISPR-Cas9 genetic screens are becoming more popular for identifying molecular mechanisms in both the mitochondrial function and energy metabolism in specific cell types and environments.

In contrast to other methods, our protocol employs two purification steps, differential centrifugation, and immune capture for mitochondrial isolation. This offers several advantages, like improved removal of contaminants, and it is also powerful tool for identifying new mitochondrial proteins. Our protocol provides insight into the composition, and therefore, mitochondrial function in different cell types and environments.

This can help us better understand normal processes like immune activation, but also pathological processes like cancer. We will focus on mitochondrial macrophages. We will test how the composition of mitochondria changes during immune response to better understand their function.

Our findings could lead to a development of drugs with, for example, anti-inflammatory effects.