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Prashant Mishra Lab

Research Focus

Mitochondrial diseases affect approximately 1 in every 5,000 newborns, making them some of the most common genetic diseases. How these diseases present varies greatly, ranging from early fatality to progressive, adult-onset symptoms. This makes diagnosis and prognosis difficult, and even with proper identification, there are currently no effective treatments for this class of diseases. The best chance for developing treatments lies in expanding our understanding of mitochondrial behavior. This is particularly true within the context of the whole cell and organism because mitochondria are considered metabolic “hotspots” and are well-integrated into a large number of biochemical pathways.

Our research focuses on how mitochondria are embedded in normal cellular function. Improving our understanding will help us identify new insights into mitochondrial diseases and allow us
to develop clinical tools and therapeutic options.

Prashant Mishra received his undergraduate degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard University….
Full Bio

Research Projects

Select Publications

Xun, W., Menezes, C., Jia, Y., Xiao, Y., Krishna Venigalla, S.S., Cai, F., Hsieh, M.H., Gu, W., Du, L., Sudderth, J., Kim, D., Shelton, S.D., Llamas, C.B., Lin, Y.H., Zhu, M., Merchant, S., Bezwada, D., Kelekar, S., Zacharias, L.G., Mathews, T.P. Hoxhaj, G., Wynn, R.M., Tambar, U.K., DeBerardinis, R.J., Zhu, H., and P. Mishra. (2024). Metabolic inflexibility promotes mitochondrial health during liver regeneration. Science 384:eadj4301 (PubMed)

Wang, X., and P. Mishra. (2023). Fusion of dysfunction muscle stem cells with myofibers induces sarcopenia in mice. bioRxiv 10.1101/2023.01.20.524967. (PubMed)

Chen, Z., Bordieanu, B., Kesavan, R., Lesner, N.P., Venigalla, S.S.K., Shelton, S.D., DeBerardinis, R.J., and P. Mishra. (2023). Lactate metabolism is essential in early-onset mitochondrial myopathy. Science Advances 9:eadd3216. (PubMed)

Garg, A., Keng, W.T., Chen, Z., Sathe, A.A., Xing, C., Kailasam, P.D., Shao, Y., Lesner, N.P., Llamas, C.B., Agarwal, A.K., and P. Mishra. (2022). Autosomal recessive progeroid syndrome due to homozygosity for a TOMM7 variant. Journal of Clinical Investigation 132:e156864. (PubMed)

Lesner, N.P., Wang, X., Chen, Z., Frank, A., Menezes, C., House, S., Shelton, S.D., Lemoff, A., McFadden, D.G., Wanaspura, J., DeBerardinis, R.J., and P. Mishra. (2022). Differential requirements for mitochondrial electron transport chain components in the adult murine liver. eLife 11:e80919. (PubMed)

Wang, X., Jia, Y., Zhao, J., Lesner, N.P., Menezes, C.J., Shelton, S.D., Venigalla, S.S.K., Xu, J., Cai, C., and P. Mishra. (2022). A Mitofusin 2 – Hif1α axis sets a maturation checkpoint in regenerating skeletal muscle. Journal of Clinical Investigation 132:e161638. (PubMed)

Wang, X., Shelton, S.D., Bordieanu, B., Frank, A.R., Yi, Y., Venigalla, S.S.K., Gu, Z., Lenser, N.P., Glogauer, M., Chandel, N.S., Zhao, H., Zhao, Z., McFadden, D.G., and P. Mishra. (2022). Scinderin promotes fusion of electron transport chain dysfunctional muscle stem cells with myofibers. Nature Aging 2, 155-169. (PubMed)

Lesner, N.P., Gokhale, A., Kota, K., DeBerardinis, R.J., and P. Mishra. (2020). α-ketobutyrate links alterations in cystine metabolism to glucose oxidation in mtDNA mutant cells. Metabolic Engineering 60, 157-167. (PubMed)

Mishra, P. (2016). Interfaces between mitochondrial dynamics and disease. Cell Calcium 60, 190-8. (PubMed)

Mishra, P., and D.C. Chan. (2016). Metabolic regulation of mitochondrial dynamics. Journal of Cell Biology 212, 379-87. (PubMed)

Mishra, P.,* Varuzhanyan, G.,* Pham, A.H., and D.C. Chan. (2015). Mitochondrial dynamics is a distinguishing feature of skeletal muscle fiber types and regulates organellar compartmentalization. Cell Metabolism 22, 1033-44.  (PubMed

Mishra, P., and D.C. Chan. (2014). Mitochondrial dynamics and inheritance during cell division, development and disease. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 15, 634-646. (PubMed)

*Contributed equally

Lab Members

Nicholas Lesner, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D. Student (2017-2021)

Spencer Shelton, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow, Boston Children’s Hosptial
Ph.D. Student (2018-2024) / Nat’l Sci. Found. Grad. Research Fellow

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