By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

Mitochondria are most well known as the energy producing organelles of the cell, producing chemical energy via ATP production in all Eukaryotic species. However, mitochondria have a much broader role than simple centers of energy production in the cell and play critical roles in a range of processes from controlling cell fate via programmed cell death (called apoptosis)—central to tissue morphogenesis and anti-tumorigenic regulation— to regulating gene expression (via modulating metabolite concentrations like cyclic AMP), to name but a few of the multitudinous cellular processes involving this dynamic organelle.

Because of the ancestral nature as an endosymbiont, mitochondria are extremely active within cells and are even described as exhibiting social behaviors [1]—indicating high levels of complex information processing with intercommunication and coordination of activity [2]— so much...