The team behind the countdown.

Mitzi Solomon is a communications strategist, entrepreneur, and Founder and President of Countdown, a nonprofit working to accelerate mitochondrial science and medicine and help bring cellular energy to the center of human health.

Drawing on more than two decades of experience building brands, forging strategic partnerships, and shaping public conversations, Mitzi is leading a growing movement to advance understanding of mitochondrial health, increase investment in mitochondrial science, and unite a historically overlooked, underfunded, and fragmented field. Through Countdown, she brings together scientists, clinicians, philanthropists, innovators, brands, and advocates around a shared belief: that mitochondrial health and cellular energy are foundational to human health and deserve far greater attention in science, medicine, and public awareness. Under her leadership, Countdown is helping drive a new era of health- one that recognizes the central role mitochondria play in disease, resilience, performance, and healthy aging.

Mitzi earned her undergraduate degree from Indiana University, where she majored in Journalism with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in History. She later earned a master’s degree in Education from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. Throughout her career, she has built a career spanning media, communications, public relations, and strategic partnerships, including roles at CNN, PMK, and the World Gold Council before launching Mitzi & Associates Inc., a boutique public relations and brand strategy firm that advised entertainment, luxury, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and consumer brands on media relations, strategic partnerships, brand positioning, and experiential marketing.

A personal health journey ultimately inspired Mitzi to found Countdown and dedicate her work to advancing awareness, collaboration, and progress in mitochondrial science and medicine. Today, she is helping bring mitochondrial health and cellular energy into the mainstream conversation about human health.

In addition to her leadership role at Countdown, Mitzi serves on the Board of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine (CMEM) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is active in the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta as a Lion of Judah, serves on the committee for the International Lion of Judah Conference, is Co-Chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s 125th Anniversary Celebration, and serves on the Federation’s Event Strategy Task Force.

At home in Atlanta, Mitzi is a wife and mother to four children, Jack, Nate, Dean, and Elliotte, and three Bernedoodles. Life is full, filled with love, purpose, and a healthy dose of organized chaos. It is also a daily reminder of the energy, resilience, joy, and vitality that Countdown is working to protect.

Julie Teer is the Chief Executive Officer of Countdown, where she leads the organization’s strategy, enterprise growth, fundraising, and national partnerships. She works closely with scientific, philanthropic, and institutional partners to advance Countdown’s mission to accelerate mitochondrial research and elevate mitochondrial health as a key frontier in medicine, aging, and human performance.

Julie is a transformational nonprofit and enterprise leader with more than 20 years of experience guiding nationally scaled organizations through growth, change, and expanded impact. She is known for building high-performing teams, strengthening complex institutions, and aligning boards and stakeholders around bold, mission-driven strategy. In 2018, she was appointed by the President of the United States to serve on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.

Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President of Wellstar Health System and President of the Wellstar Foundation, where she built the Foundation from inception and grew philanthropic revenue fourfold to more than $20 million annually. She also played a key leadership role in enterprise strategy and integration during a major system transformation, including a $2B acquisition.

Prior to that, Julie served as Chief Development and Public Affairs Officer at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, helping scale a 4,700-site national network serving 4.5 million youth while leading movement-wide revenue of $2.2 billion. She led a $585 million national campaign, doubled private-sector revenue, expanded the donor base from 1,200 to over 120,000, and significantly increased federal funding through strengthened advocacy and policy leadership. She also developed and led an award-winning corporate partnership platform, earning multiple industry honors for cause marketing campaigns. Julie spearheaded a historic advocacy and government relations strategy that resulted in bipartisan, bicameral legislation and received the Innovation in Lobbying Award from the Public Affairs Council.

Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership roles at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, where she worked directly alongside the founder, Nancy G. Brinker, to expand the global impact and diversify revenue strategies. She also served in senior communications, fundraising, and political strategy roles for elected officials and presidential campaigns. Today, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Alliance Theatre, is Adjunct Faculty at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, serves on the Planning Committee for Women Who Lead, and is a member of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2026.

Jeff Solomon is an Atlanta-based entrepreneur and business leader with extensive experience in building and scaling growth-oriented companies.

Throughout his career, he has focused on strategic development, operational excellence, and long-term value creation across multiple industries. Known for his disciplined leadership style and strong relationship-driven approach, Jeff has played key roles in driving business expansion, cultivating strategic partnerships, and identifying opportunities for innovation and market growth. His work reflects a commitment to performance, integrity, and sustainable success. In addition to his business endeavors, Jeff is deeply committed to philanthropy and community impact.

He serves alongside his wife, Mitzi Solomon, in supporting Countdown, where he helps advance its mission to accelerate research in mitochondrial health and longevity science. Together, they work to bridge the worlds of business, science, and philanthropy to catalyze meaningful progress in healthcare.

Stephanie Ballien is the VP of Marketing at Countdown, where she leads brand strategy, communications, growth initiatives, and strategic partnerships in support of the organization’s mission to accelerate mitochondrial research and expand public understanding of mitochondrial health. She oversees efforts to connect groundbreaking science with broader audiences, helping position mitochondrial function as a critical frontier in the future of health and wellness.

Stephanie brings more than 20 years of global marketing leadership experience across healthcare, technology, consumer goods, and automotive industries. She has led growth and brand initiatives for both startups and global organizations, including Amazon, where she directed integrated marketing for Prime, one of the world’s most recognized membership programs. Throughout her career, she has built a reputation for translating complex ideas into compelling consumer experiences, fostering strategic partnerships, and driving measurable business growth.

As a stage III colorectal cancer survivor and mother of a child with mitochondrial disease, Stephanie’s personal experiences have deepened her commitment to advancing scientific innovation and improving health outcomes. Her passion for mitochondrial science and patient advocacy informs her work at Countdown and her dedication to accelerating research that has the potential to impact millions of lives.

Stephanie resides in Seattle with her husband and two sons, where she pursues her passion for adventuring in the Pacific Northwest while inspiring others to prioritize their health.

As a pioneer in merging systems of medicine, quadruple board-certified integrative medicine physician in integrative medicine, lifestyle medicine, functional medicine, and pediatrics, Dr. Taz Bhatia is on a mission to provide the world with true, holistic medicine that combines a unique integration of science, spirit, and the human experience.

Faced with personal health challenges in her twenties and a health care system that was dismissive, Dr. Taz turned to nutrition, homeopathy, and Eastern medical wisdom for answers. What she found was a wealth of information that had not yet been taught in conventional medical schools.

Passionate about sharing this new knowledge, she opened CentreSpringMD in Atlanta, a nationally recognized holistic and integrative medical practice designed to treat the entire family. Fifteen years later, Dr. Taz has scaled the practice to become hol+ and opened locations in LA and NYC, along with an expanded global telehealth platform.

From primary care to chronic disease management and specialty care, Dr. Taz has led the growth of hol+, formerly CentreSpringMD, from a solo provider practice with 2 employees to a multi-clinic company with 4 locations and a global telehealth platform with over 50 employees. Dr. Taz’s clinics continue to garner medical awards, including Best Georgia practice and Atlanta’s Top Doc recognitions.

Dr. Cohen graduated in 1986 with highest honors from the Technion Medical School in Israel and trained at Stanford University. In 2012, he was appointed as the Dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. He received numerous awards throughout his career, including a National Institute of Aging “EUREKA” Award and the NIH Director-Transformative RO1-Grant. He also received the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging and the AFAR Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction. He has been elected to the AAAS and the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Cohen published over 400 papers in top scientific journals, and his h-index is 111. He is the co-founder of CohBar, a biotechnology company developing novel peptides for diseases of aging. Twenty-five years ago, his lab discovered the first mitochondrial peptide (humanin) and soon proceeded to found the new field of microproteins, a discovery that transformed our understanding of biology by expanding the human genome from 20,000 genes to hundreds of thousands, by identifying previously unrecognized small open-reading frames that encode microproteins.

He is currently leading the emerging science of microproteins through the development of novel bioinformatic approaches, adapting techniques such as GWAS and RNAseq to detect changes in mitochondrial peptides involved in human disease. Among his discoveries are novel natural variants, gain-of-function mutants in the SHLP2 peptide that protect from Parkinson’s disease, and the humanin peptide, which protects from Alzheimer’s, as well as inactivating mutations in MOTS-c and SHMOOSE that lead to diabetes and Alzheimer’s, respectively. His lab is advancing several of these peptides towards clinical development for various chronic conditions, including MOTS-c analogs, which are promising interventions for muscle preservation that successfully completed a Phase-1B trial.

Dr. Imed Gallouzi is a Professor of Bioscience and Chair of the KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) Center of Excellence for Smart Health in Saudi Arabia. He previously spent over 20 years at McGill University as Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and at the Goodman Cancer Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University Montpellier II, France (1998), and completed postdoctoral training at Yale University (1998–2001). From 2002 to 2012, he held a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Cellular Information Systems and received the FRSQ award (2002–2006). He serves on multiple national and international funding agencies, including CIHR, CCSRI, FRSQ, and NIH.

A leading expert in mRNA biology, Professor Gallouzi co-discovered stress granules in 2000, revealing their role in cellular stress responses and disease. His research on RNA-binding protein pathways and the link between stress granules and prevention of cancer-induced muscle wasting has been widely recognized, including as a top-10 discovery by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute in 2012.

Passionate about teaching and mentorship, he co-authored the First Canadian Edition of BIOCHEMISTRY (2013) and has helped develop innovative graduate programs globally. His academic career spans Europe, North America, and the Middle East, with leadership roles at McGill University, HBKU in Qatar, and KAUST, where he established graduate programs and labs in molecular and cellular biology.

Since joining KAUST in 2021, Professor Gallouzi has expanded KSHI’s research programs and Bioinnovation Platforms—including viral vector production, iPSC facilities, and a Biobank—positioning it as a leader in translational health research. He has fostered national and international collaborations, organized major conferences, and played a key role in launching the region’s first MD-PhD program in partnership with Alfaisal University, training future medical scientists to integrate AI and ML into healthcare.

Dr. Christin Glorioso is a neuroscientist, physician, and serial entrepreneur. She is a Co-Founder and CEO of NeuroAge Therapeutics and Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit, Longevity Global. An expert in predictive modeling, her COVID-19 US case prediction model was #1 out of 104 teams worldwide in the XPRIZE Pandemic Response Challenge. Previously, she was Head of Research of the DICE Institute at the Pathcheck Foundation, Head of AI of the COVIDB division at TeachAids, and Chief Strategist of UCSF’s Bakar Aging Research Institute.

She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and been awarded fellowships by AFAR, the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, and the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Glorioso holds an MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University’s Medical Scientist Training Program and completed her postdoctoral training at MIT.

Dr. Gottschalk grew up in Dallas, Texas, as the youngest of three boys. He went on to graduate from JJ Pierce High School in the top 10% of his class and as an AP Scholar with Distinction. Dr. Gottschalk received an academic scholarship to attend the Business Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating from UT Austin, he then went to complete medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Upon completion of medical school, Dr. Gottschalk completed his Orthopaedic Surgery Internship and Residency at Emory University. While in his training, Dr. Gottschalk received multiple accolades and awards for his outstanding research and was elected as a resident leader to the esteemed American Orthopaedic Association.

After the completion of his Orthopaedic Surgical Training, Dr. Gottschalk was selected to the prestigious Emanuel Kaplan Hand and Upper Extremity Fellowship at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases. He was selected as the Hand and Upper Extremity administrative fellow and served on the resident council for quality and safety. During his training at the Hospital for Joint Diseases, Dr. Gottschalk helped treat work-related injuries to the NYPD, NYFD, and hotel trade union.

Dr. Gottschalk is board-certified in Orthopedic Surgery and surgery of the hand. He also holds the positions of Assistant Professor of Plastics Surgery, Adjunct Appointment, Plastics Surgery – Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, and Assistant Professor, Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Orthopedics at Emory University. Dr. Gottschalk has won numerous awards and is a member of many professional orthopedic societies.

Dr. Colwyn “CoCo” Headley is an Instructor & Faculty Member in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He earned his B.S. in Microbiology and Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences (Immunology) from The Ohio State University, followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University.

Dr. Headley’s research focuses on the intersection of aging-associated mitochondrial dysfunction and immune regulation, aiming to uncover novel mechanisms underlying immune-mediated cardiovascular diseases, such as abdominal aortic aneurysms and peripheral artery disease. His work leverages innovative approaches in mitochondrial bioengineering and transplantation, with an emphasis on enhancing mitochondrial function and cellular metabolism to restore immune and vascular health in aging and disease. Dr. Headley’s research is currently funded by the American Heart Association, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and NASA.

Dr. Kendall, a board-certified Clinical Biochemical Geneticist trained at Harvard, has 30 years of experience in the care of patients with mitochondrial, metabolic, and connective tissue disorders.

As one of the first women in her field, she piloted the first Mitochondrial Disorders Program in the US, created one of the first private laboratories focused on metabolic and mitochondrial disorders, and offered telemedicine to underserved rare disease communities around the world before such practice was commonplace. Her current consulting firm, a unique, innovative group, VMP Genetics, brings together Metabolic leaders to provide direct patient care consultation, physician support to understaffed programs, and biochemical genetics education through a host of platforms. She is a founding member and current CEO of VMP Genetics, LLC.

Dr. Kendall is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters on mitochondrial and other metabolic disorders, served as the Safety Committee Chair for a mitochondrial medication clinical trial and is on the Medical Advisory Committee for MitoAction. She resides in Atlanta, GA with her family and enjoys traveling the globe, gardening, writing and mastering the piano.

Dr. Toni Kim is a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist and a national pioneer in integrative pediatric endocrinology, a modern approach that bridges traditional hormone science with systems-based, cellular, and metabolic medicine. She is one of the founders of Life Pediatric Endocrinology, a nationally recognized specialty practice dedicated to optimizing growth, puberty, metabolic health, and long-term physiologic outcomes in children and adolescents.

With more than 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. Kim has built her career around understanding how hormonal signaling, mitochondrial function, nutrition, inflammation, and energy metabolism intersect to shape a child’s development and lifelong health. Her work emphasizes early detection, precision diagnostics, and individualized treatment strategies, particularly for complex and chronic conditions that do not fit neatly into traditional diagnostic frameworks.

Dr. Kim earned her undergraduate degree in biochemistry magna cum laude from Stony Brook University, followed by medical training and pediatric residency at New York Medical College, where she served as Pediatric Chief Resident. She completed her pediatric endocrinology fellowship at Children’s Hospital Colorado and the Barbara Davis Center, gaining advanced expertise in growth disorders, diabetes, thyroid and adrenal disease, calcium metabolism, and metabolic dysfunction.

Through LIFE’s integrative clinical model, Dr. Kim has become a leading voice in rethinking pediatric endocrine care, moving beyond isolated lab values to examine cellular energy production, mitochondrial health, and systemic resilience as foundational drivers of growth and development.

Dr. Mark S. Kindy received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Boston University School of Medicine (1987), was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute (1987-89), and a faculty member at the University of Kentucky in the Department of Biochemistry (1989-2002) before moving to the Department of Neurosciences at MUSC in 2002. At the University of Kentucky, he held a number of administrative positions in research (Director of Programs) and on various Medical School and University committees. He previously was the Admiral Pihl Endowed Professor and former Director of the Neuroscience Institute in the Department of Neurosciences at MUSC. Dr. Kindy was a Career Research Scientist at the VA Medical Center and Director of the Phenomics Center (small animal imaging). Dr. Kindy recently served as the Assistant Provost for Research (Technology Transfer and Corporate Development).

His major research interests are understanding the role of signal transduction pathways in stroke and spinal cord injury, the mechanisms of Abeta degradation and the role of the RAGE receptor in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease and the development of therapeutic strategies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Kindy has published over 130 peer-reviewed articles and has been funded by NIH, NSF, the VA, DoD, DARPA, and numerous foundations.

Physician/medical school professor (The University of California, Los Angeles and University of South Carolina) and New York Times bestselling author focusing on the applied science of health, longevity, and consciousness. After reversing chronic disease and transforming his life, he is making it his mission to help others do the same.

Helping to reimagine the conventional healthcare model with evidence-based lifestyle modifications and other tools. His new book, ‘Lies I Taught In Medical School,’ is a New York Times bestseller and has reframed how we think about metabolic health and longevity. In addition to being a practicing physician, he is the author of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 14 books that are available in ten languages. His weekly video podcast and social media posts have over 400,000 followers worldwide.

Robert has given invited lectures/keynotes around the world, and was named one of the ‘100 Most Creative People in Los Angeles’ by Buzz Magazine. His other honors include serving as President of the Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, President of the American Society of Head and Neck Radiology, and numerous other professional affiliations. Among his many inventions, including several patents in artificial intelligence, he developed an MR-compatible biopsy needle, which is used worldwide today as the “Lufkin Needle.”

Robert studied computer science at Brown University and completed his medical degree at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He is currently Adjunct Clinical Professor of Radiology at the USC Keck School of Medicine with an academic focus on the applied science of longevity. He is also Chief of Metabolic Imaging at a large medical network in southern California.

Deborah Murdock is a Research Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Perelman School of Medicine and co-scientific director of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

She has been studying mitochondrial biology for over 25 years. Her main area of research is the mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis pathway and mitochondrial dysfunction in common diseases. Most recently, she has created experimental models of the mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis disorder MEPAN that can be used for testing therapeutics.

Area of Expertise: Mitochondrial genetics, primary mitochondrial disease, mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis, mouse models of mitochondrial dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction in common diseases.

Dr. Nirosha J. Murugan is Canada Research Chair in Tissue Biophysics and a Faculty of Science Distinguished Research Chair at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she leads a multidisciplinary research program investigating the physical basis of life. As an applied biophysicist, her work explores how structured physical signals, such as light and magnetism, govern cellular plasticity, tissue regeneration, and the reversal of disease states.

Nirosha earned her Ph.D. in Biomolecular Sciences at Laurentian University in Canada, where she pioneered quantum sensor-based technologies for non-invasive cancer detection — now translated into a startup, HelioFlux Inc. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Michael Levin’s lab at Tufts University, she helped establish ion-channel bioelectricity as a mechanism of tissue patterning.

Her lab bridges quantum mechanics and biophysics with biomedical engineering to decode how physical signals, acting as carriers of structured information, sculpt the body’s energetic architecture. A passionate educator and former Harvard teaching fellow, Nirosha is deeply committed to mentorship and to making biophysics accessible to the next generation of health innovators.

Dr. Christopher Palmer is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health. He is the Founder and Director of the Metabolic and Mental Health Program and the Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For almost 30 years, he has held administrative, educational, research, and clinical roles in psychiatry at McLean and Harvard.

He has been pioneering the use of the medical ketogenic diet in the treatment of psychiatric disorders—conducting research in this area, treating patients, writing, and speaking around the world on this topic. Most recently, he has proposed that mental disorders can be understood as metabolic disorders affecting the brain, which has received widespread recognition in both national and international media outlets.

Dr. Patgiri’s research focuses on developing innovative therapies for mitochondrial diseases. He earned his PhD in chemical biology under the supervision of Dr. Paramjit (Bobby) Arora at NYU, where he created the first direct inhibitor of the oncoprotein Ras as a potential anticancer therapeutic. Dr. Patgiri then trained as a postdoctoral fellow under Dr. Vamsi Mootha at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in mitochondrial disease biology. During his postdoctoral research, Dr. Patgiri engineered an enzyme called LOXCAT as a potential therapy for primary mitochondrial diseases. In his independent lab, Dr. Patgiri leverages his expertise in chemistry, drug development, metabolism, and mitochondrial disease biology to develop potential therapies for mitochondrial diseases.

Anupam Patgiri, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Patgiri is a member of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute.

Thomas N. Seyfried is Professor of Biology at Boston College and received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Illinois in 1976. He did his undergraduate work at the University of New England, where he received a distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. He also holds a master’s degree in Genetics from Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Thomas Seyfried served with distinction in the United States Army’s First Cavalry Division during the Vietnam War and received numerous medals and commendations. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neurology at the Yale University School of Medicine and then served on the faculty as an Assistant Professor in Neurology. Other awards and honors have come from such diverse organizations as the American Oil Chemists Society, the National Institutes of Health, the American Society for Neurochemistry, and the Ketogenic Diet Special Interest Group of the American Epilepsy Society. Professor Seyfried previously served as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases Association. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy of Complementary and Integrative Medicine and the International Dose Response Society, and the Uncompromising Science Award from the American College of Nutrition for his work on cancer. He is a member of the Sigma Xi honor society and presently serves on several editorial boards, including those for Nutrition & Metabolism, Neurochemical Research, the Journal of Lipid Research, and ASN Neuro, where he is a Senior Editor. Professor Seyfried is also author of the book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer (Wiley Press), which has been translated into Chinese and Korean. He has described his research on many podcasts and radio shows, and his work is central to the documentary film, The Cancer Revolution. Professor Seyfried has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and a current h-Index of 77

Dr. Noa Sher is a biotechnology executive with over a decade of experience dedicated to treating rare diseases. Her multidisciplinary background and ability to address complex scientific research and translational challenges make her a valuable asset in translating ideas from conception to clinical development in the highly regulated biotechnology industry. As the Chief Scientific Officer at Minovia Therapeutics, she leads the development of innovative mitochondrial cell therapies aimed at treating mitochondrial and hematopoietic diseases.

Before her tenure at Minovia, Dr. Sher was a research team lead at Pluristem, where she was responsible for the preclinical development of several clinical-stage allogeneic cell therapy products. A molecular and cellular biologist by training, Dr. Sher began her career in academia, founding and heading a bioinformatics service unit at the University of Haifa.

She holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University and completed postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute, MIT, and at the Technion Institute of Technology.

Dr. Keshav K. Singh is a globally renowned scientist, entrepreneur, and pioneer in mitochondrial biology, serving as the Scientific Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Yuva Bio.

With an academic journey spanning India (Microbiology), Australia (PhD in Marine Biology, Woods Hole fellowship), and Harvard (postdoc in DNA damage and repair), Dr. Singh has held distinguished professorships at Johns Hopkins, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He was the first to demonstrate mitochondria’s role as epigenetic regulators of the nuclear genome and to show xenogenic mitochondrial transfer in human cells, launching the field of mitochondrial transplantation.

Founding Editor-in-Chief of Mitochondrion and Cancer Health Disparities, he has authored 100+ peer-reviewed papers and a book on mitochondrial diseases. His honors include Newsweek Innovation Hero (2020), Indian Icon Award (2023), and Startup of the Year (2023).

Dr. Howard Snapper is a highly specialized physician and one of fewer than 50 doctors in North America certified to diagnose and treat autonomic disorders. Doctors across the nation refer their patients to Dr. Snapper for his specialized evaluation and skilled expertise. Dr. Snapper is board-certified in Cardiovascular Disease and interventional cardiology. He is also board-certified in Autonomic Disorders. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Snapper received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed his internship and residency at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and completed a general and interventional fellowship at the New England Medical Center Hospital in Boston. Dr. Snapper joined Wellstar Medical Group, Cardiovascular Medicine, in November 2008.

Dr. Shawn Tritt, a respected anesthesiologist, physician, and leader at Emory Johns Creek Hospital since 2009. He was appointed as Chief Medical Officer in 2019. Dr. Tritt has consistently demonstrated his commitment to patient care and hospital improvement through various leadership roles, including serving as Vice Chief of Staff, Vice Chair of Anesthesiology, Chair of the Ethics Committee, and member of the Medical Executive Committee and Hospital Board of Directors.

He is also actively involved in surgical education and collaborative initiatives to enhance care delivery. Dr. Tritt received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and completed his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Virginia, where he served as Chief Resident.

Douglas C. Wallace, PhD, is Director of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He holds the Michael and Charles Barnett Endowed Chair in Pediatric Mitochondrial Medicine and Metabolic Diseases. More than 35 years ago, Dr. Wallace and his colleagues founded the field of human mitochondrial genetics. Dr. Wallace showed that the mtDNA is inherited exclusively from the mother and that genetic alterations in the mtDNA can result in a wide range of metabolic and degenerative diseases, as well as being important in cancer and aging.

Dr. Wallace’s research is currently dedicated to understanding the crucial role of mitochondrial energy in both human health and disease.

A life science entrepreneur, the Scientific founder and CEO of Minovia Therapeutics Ltd. has led the company since its incorporation in 2011.

Natalie holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University; a Postdoctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute; Twenty years of experience in mitochondrial research that led to the development of a novel mitochondrial cell therapy approach to treat mitochondrial diseases: from ideation to clinical stage; from a small start-up to a global organization with a team of Biotech leaders. Raised $30M from private investors; established collaborations with top researchers and clinical centers around the world, as well as strategic partnership with a leading pharma company.

Natalie lives in Haifa, Israel and is a proud mother of 4 daughters.

Dr. Frank Yuan is a highly accomplished, board-certified Plastic, Reconstructive, and Hand Surgeon based in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He is the President and Founder of Le Yuan Aesthetic, LLC in Marietta, GA, and also serves as the Medical Director for Saha Medspa in Johns Creek, GA. He completed extensive fellowship training, including one in Combined Orthopaedic and Plastic Hand, Upper Extremity, and Micro Surgery at the University of Connecticut Medical School and another in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Cincinnati Medical School. He earned his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University.

A respected figure in his field, his research on hand surgery outcomes and evidence-based practice has been published extensively. He has also been recognized with the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2015. Dr. Yuan is proficient in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.