Now imagine your body with one-half of its energy producing facilities shut down. The brain would be impaired, vision would be dim, muscles would twitch spastically or would be too weak to allow your body to walk or write, your heart would be weakened, and you would not be able to eat and digest your food. For large numbers of people, especially children, this is precisely the situation in which they find themselves due to defects in the mitochondria, organelles found in every cell of the body which are responsible for the body's energy production.
Mitochondrial diseases compromise their lives and can be fatal.
Mitochondrial defects have also been linked to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, autism, and the aging process. UMDF supports scientific collaboration and family networking through international symposia and is building an endowment to sustain research through the millennium. Use of this website implies that the user acknowledges and agrees to abide by the Terms Of Use . The materials on this Website may be protected under U.S. copyright law and international treaty.