A grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support scientists at the University of South Alabama (USA) Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine to create artificial “designer” mitochondria, enabling the development and testing of novel treatments for mitochondrial disease. Dr. Mikhail Alexeyev, a professor of physiology and cell biology, is principal investigator of the “Designer Mitochondria for Biotechnology, Healthcare, and Basic Research” project. Alexeyev was awarded $999,996 from NSF’s prestigious and highly competitive Systems and Synthetic Biology program. Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary field that combines biology, engineering and computer science to design and construct new biological systems or modify existing ones. It involves creating synthetic DNA sequences and assembling them into organisms to perform specific functions, such as producing pharmaceuticals, biofuels or other useful products. Alexeyev earned a PhD from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He completed postdoctoral studies at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston and joined the faculty at the Whiddon College of Medicine in 1996. Collaborators on the project are research associate Dr. Rafik Fayzulin and research technologist Dr. Natalya Kozhukhar.