Mitochondrial biogenesis: the evolution of molecular machines

We aim to determine the mechanism by which the subcellular compartment in human and other cells referred to as the mitochondrion, evolved from intracellular bacterial parasite. The evolutionary process depended on the creation of a set of molecular machines, which we seek to understand. A combination of computational bioinformatics, molecular genetics and cell biology wil be employed to understand the evolution of the molecular machines, and the mitochondria they are employed to build and divide in the normal functon of human, fungal and plant cell life.