CELL FINDING MAY LEAD TO DISEASE INSIGHTS United Press International; 10/13/2004 United Press International 10-13-2004 Cell finding may lead to disease insights BALTIMORE, Oct 13, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- U.S. scientists said new findings about the energy-generating components of cells may lead to new treatments for cancers and brain diseases. A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and two California universities reported in two studies in the journal Science that they made headway in determining how a cellular component called mitochondria undergoes fusion and division, a process that can go awry and lead to some cancers, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Mitochondria are self-replicating structures within cells that contain their own DNA and are the principal energy source of cells. They constantly split and recombine but few details were known about this process. In the studies, the researchers used microscopes to study mitochondria that had been removed from cells and discovered that mitochondria can undergo fusion outside of the cellular environment. The discovery will help scientists understand this process and potentially yield insights into the aging process and treatments for diseases, wrote J. Michael McCaffery, a research scientist in the Johns Hopkins Department of Biology and an author on both studies.