"4D fluorescence microscopy reveals characteristic mitochondrial behavior in lung and intestine organoids"
Gillian McMahon
Ph.D. student and current Interfaces Trainee
Bioengineering Department
Co-mentors: Johannes Schöneberg, Ph.D., Pharmacology and Chemistry & Biochemistry and Rommie Amaro, Ph.D., Chemistry & Biochemistry
Seminar Information
Mitochondria assume the form of a three-dimensional temporal network in the cell. There is a spectrum of mitochondrial network morphologies and dynamics that ranges from static, organized single mitochondria to branched, motile networks of connected mitochondria. This spectrum is sensitive to cell state, cell type, and organ system. We hypothesize that there are shared, but also unique, biophysical parameters that govern the mitochondrial temporal network dynamics in cells and tissues. We investigate two model systems, intestinal organoids and branching lung organoids, to extract and understand these biophysical parameters. We used adaptive optics-lattice light sheet microscopy (AO-LLSM) to capture 4D (x, y, z, time) mitochondria data in tissues with low photo-toxicity and high spatio-temporal resolution. Automated image processing and computational temporal network tracking was performed using the MitoTNT software package to quantify fission/fusion events, morphological parameters, motility, and graph temporal network properties. We found network feature quantifications unique to each organoid type and have demonstrated the ability to separate the data along principle components, suggesting the ability to predict organoid (and cell) type based on mitochondrial dynamics.