HOUSTONâJustin Friendâs parents have doctoral degrees and have worked as university lecturers and researchers. So Mr. Friend might have been expected to head for a university after graduating from high school in Bryan, Texas, five years ago. Instead, he attended Texas State Technical College in Waco, and received a two-year degree in welding.
A flurry of emergent research has linked mitochondrial dysfunction to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Mitochondrial dysfunction results in impaired ATP generation, loss of cellular repair mechanisms, and cellular inefficiency.
Mitochondrial disease includes a group of neuromuscular diseases caused by damage to intracellular structures that produce energy, the mitochondria; disease symptoms usually involve muscle contractions that are weak or spontaneous. There is no specific treatment for mitochondrial diseases (myopathies).