In a first, children with rare genetic diseases get mitochondrial transplants from their mothers
At a far distant point in Earth’s ancient past, two separate, single-celled life forms — an archaeon and a bacteria — became one in an act either of symbiosis or enslavement, depending on which microbiologist you ask.
And over the next 2 billion or so years, that bacteria evolved to be the mitochondria that power nearly every cell in the human body. These capsule-shaped organelles don’t just turn oxygen and nutrients into chemical energy. They also metabolize cholesterol and synthesize hormones and neurotransmitters. They’re the reason we can walk up stairs, run long distances, jump and swim and laugh and love. Without them, we’d still be sliming around a primordial mudpot somewhere.
