Newly Established Fellowship Will Train Doctors on Mitochondrial Disease

The Mitochondrial Medicine Clinical Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) recently announced a new one-year fellowship program designed to train a person with an MD or MD/PhD about mitochondrial disease.

This mitochondrial disease-focused fellowship is the first of its kind in the country. It’s open to anyone who has completed approximately two years of residency in any medical field or specialty and wants to learn more about mitochondrial medicine.

“Patients with mitochondrial disease exhibit a wide range of symptoms,” said Marni J. Falk, MD, Executive Director of Mitochondrial Medicine, a Frontier Program at CHOP. “What this fellowship allows us to do is to give someone the experience to understand the signs of the disease and the proper course of diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care.”

Falk said because the disease is characterized by so many symptoms — ranging from neurological issues, vision or hearing problems, developmental delays, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, and many others — she envisions that many future doctors could benefit from the experience gained in the fellowship program.

“Someone who focuses on bench-to-bedside or translational research could learn a lot from the basic research our team is conducting, or a pathologist could learn a lot about proper diagnosis and the complexities of this disease,” Falk said. “There are so many possibilities for someone who is eager to work with us.”

While many patients with mitochondrial disease have already been diagnosed and continue to receive treatment at CHOP, Falk said that the success of this fellowship could lead to an even more personalized model for the treatment of these patients.

Learn more about this fellowship opportunity.