Mitochondrial medicine and biomedical engineering

Abstract

Purpose: This paper will introduce basic information on mitochondrial medicine and the direction of research. This paper will first introduce basic information on mitochondrial medicine and the direction of research. Then, it will delineate recent research on biomedical engineering methods and applications of mitochondrial medicine and discuss prospects of this research. Methods: Recent research on mitochondrial medicine is based mostly on molecular biology. However, because energy production by mitochondria is linked closely to the macroscopic energy balance of the human body, the need for integrated research, based on systemic methods, is increasing. Results: Mitochondrial medicine is expanding as a multidisciplinary field, and biomedical engineering applications are becoming more important. Using advances in optics or sensor technology, more engineering approaches should be effective in mitochondrial medicine. Conclusions: Considering its broad scope and outcome as a diagnostic method, mitochondrial medicine will be a future paradigm of biomedical science, although it has numerous limitations at present. © 2011 Korean Society of Medical and Biological Engineering and Springer.