The development of mitochondrial medicine.

I consider mitochondrial medicine a tentative designation for an area within clinical medicine still to be delineated. Its development extends over a period of 35 years, from its discovery in 1959 [1]. Progress had been gradual until recent years when it has become explosive in nature with extensions in many different directions. My presentation is an effort to illustrate this evolution with emphasis on especially important observations which by leaps advanced the area. We are fortunate to have here several of the distinguished investigators, who have contributed so much to those advances. They will share with us their deep knowledge in different aspects of mitochondrial medicine, what is known, what remains to be elucidated, and what the problems are to be encountered in that elucidation.