Mitochondrial morphology as a biomarker of cancer phenotype and drug response

Mitochondria, critical organelles in quiescent and dividing cells, have been shown to vary in number, mass, and shape. While previous work has focused on understanding molecular mechanisms underlying changes in normal and immortalized cells, less is known about longer-term mitochondrial behavior such as morphological patterns in individual cells and overall populations, the heterogeneity and functional consequences of these patterns, and ultimately how potential mitochondrial heterogeneity can be exploited in the clinic. An image based analytical technique has been developed to phenotype mitochondrial morphology in different cancers, including in vitro cancer cell lines and patient derived cancer cells