Vamsi Mootha is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and directs a research laboratory based at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also Professor of Systems Biology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute, where he is Co-Director of the Metabolism Program.
Vamsi’s research is focused on mitochondria. His group has utilized tandem mass spectrometry, computation, and microscopy to define the 1000 proteins that comprise the mitochondrial proteome. This inventory now serves as a molecular blueprint for clinical and systems-level studies of mitochondria. Mootha’s team used this inventory to discover the molecular identity of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter, a major channel of communication between the organelle and rest of the cell. He collaborates extensively with clinicians and researchers throughout the world, and together, has more than 15 disease genes that underlie severe, metabolic diseases. His team has developed a number of computational tools that are used widely by the research community.
Vamsi received his undergraduate degree in Mathematical and Computational Science at Stanford University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. After completing his internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, he pursued postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute.
Vamsi has received a number awards, including a Macarthur “Genius Grant,” election to the National Academy of Sciences, and a Padma Shri from the Government of India.
