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MIA PaCa-2
MIA PaCa-2 (MiaPaCa-2, CVCL_0428, ATCC CRL-1420) is a human pancreatic undifferentiated carcinoma cell line established in 1975 from a 65-year-old man, carrying KRAS G12C, TP53 R248W, and CDKN2A deletion.
MIA pathway (mitochondrial intermembrane space import)
The MIA pathway imports small proteins into the mitochondrial intermembrane space by oxidatively folding them with disulfide bonds, driven by Mia40 and Erv1 rather than ATP.
Michel O. Steinmetz
Michel O. Steinmetz is a Swiss structural biologist and professor at the Paul Scherrer Institut known for work on microtubule tips, centriole symmetry, and tubulin-targeting drugs.
Microdissection
Microdissection is a laboratory technique that uses a microscope to isolate specific cells or tissue regions from a section for DNA, RNA, or protein analysis.
Microfilament
Microfilament, also called actin filament or F-actin: ~7 nm cytoskeletal filament of two actin protofilaments in a right-handed helix; treadmilling, ATP-driven assembly, nucleators like Arp2/3 and formins, roles in motility and cytokinesis.
Microfluidic cell culture
Microfluidic cell culture is a bench technique that grows cells in microscale channels, controlling perfusion, chemical gradients, and mechanical forces beyond what Petri dishes and well plates can.
Microfluidic model
A microfluidic model is a bench biology method in which miniature tissues are cultured in microfluidic chips whose channels, flow, and gradients control the cells' microenvironment, best known as the organ-on-a-chip.
Microinjection
Microinjection is a laboratory technique that uses a fine glass needle, guided by a micromanipulator under a microscope, to inject DNA, RNA, or proteins into a living cell.
Micromanipulation
Micromanipulation is a laboratory technique using fine glass microtools on remotely controlled arms under a microscope to handle individual cells and embryos, central to assisted reproduction, cloning, and single-cell biology.
Micropatterning
Micropatterning is a set of microfabrication techniques that arrange biomolecules, usually extracellular-matrix proteins, on a culture surface in defined geometries, fixing where and how cells attach.
Micropylar cell
Micropylar cell (plug cell): a specialized teleost follicle cell at the oocyte animal pole that drills the micropyle, the single sperm-entry pore in the chorion; Taz specifies it in zebrafish.
Microtubule
Microtubule: hollow cytoskeletal filament of α/β-tubulin dimers, 13 protofilaments, showing dynamic instability (catastrophe/rescue) driven by GTP hydrolysis; nucleated at centrosomes and other MTOCs; forms mitotic spindle and transport tracks.
Microtubule associated protein 1
Microtubule associated protein 1 (MAP1) is a family of microtubule-stabilizing proteins comprising MAP1A, MAP1B, and MAP1S, expressed mainly in neurons, where MAP1A and MAP1B support axon and dendrite development.
Microvascular endothelial cell
Microvascular endothelial cell: endothelial cell lining vessels under 100 μm (arterioles, capillaries, venules), where blood-tissue exchange occurs. Marked organ- and bed-specific heterogeneity in structure, gene expression, permeability, and inflammation; central to diabetes, tumor angiogenesis, and tissue engineering.
Microvillus
Microvillus (plural microvilli): actin-supported finger-like projection from an animal cell surface; intestinal brush border has ~1,000 per cell, boosting absorptive area; defects cause microvillus inclusion disease (MYO5B).
Mim2
Mim2 (MIM2, YLR099W-A) is an 87-residue single-pass mitochondrial outer membrane protein of budding yeast that with Mim1 forms the fungal MIM complex, the insertase importing alpha-helical outer membrane proteins such as Tom20, Ugo1, and Fzo1; distinct from the ESCRT MIM2 motif.
Mitochondria
Mitochondria are double-membrane eukaryotic organelles that generate ATP via cristae-folded inner membranes, carry their own ~16 kb genome, descend from alphaproteobacteria by endosymbiosis, and remodel through fission, fusion, and mitophagy.
Mitochondria associated membranes
Mitochondria associated membranes (MAMs, MERCs), ER–mitochondria contact sites 10–50 nm apart tethered by IP3R–GRP75–VDAC1 and mitofusins, mediating calcium transfer, lipid exchange, autophagy, and disease-linked signaling.
Mitochondria fission 1 protein
Mitochondrial fission 1 protein (FIS1, Fis1p) is a tail-anchored outer mitochondrial membrane protein with TPR domains, discovered in yeast as a Dnm1 recruiter and in mammals one of four Drp1 adaptors, with roles in fission, mitophagy, and apoptosis.
Mitochondria-associated ER membrane
Mitochondria-associated ER membrane (MAM, MERC): ER–mitochondria contact site where membranes are tethered 10–50 nm apart without fusing, mediating calcium transfer via VDAC1–GRP75–IP3R, phospholipid synthesis, fission, and neurodegenerative disease links.
Mitochondrial antioxidant systems
Mitochondrial antioxidant systems are the enzymes and cofactors inside mitochondria that convert superoxide, produced mainly at respiratory complexes I and III, into water before it damages DNA, proteins, and lipids.
Mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channel
The mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channel (mitoKATP), first identified in 1991, is an inner mitochondrial membrane channel controlling potassium influx according to ATP availability and linked to cardioprotection.
Mitochondrial biogenesis
Mitochondrial biogenesis is the process by which cells increase their mitochondrial content, building new mitochondria through coordinated expression of two genomes and driven by demands such as exercise.
Mitochondrial calcium uniporter
Mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU, mtCU): Ca2+-selective ion channel of the inner mitochondrial membrane; DXXE selectivity filter, MICU1/2 gatekeeping, EMRE core subunit; inhibited by Ru360 and Ru265.
Mitochondrial carrier
Mitochondrial carriers, the SLC25A family, are transport proteins that move metabolites across the inner mitochondrial membrane; with 53 human members, it is the largest human solute transporter family.
Mitochondrial disease
Mitochondrial disease: genetic disorders of mitochondrial energy production caused by mtDNA or nDNA variants, affecting about 1 in 4,300 to 1 in 5,000 people; first FDA-approved therapies, elamipretide and doxecitine-doxribtimine, arrived in 2025.
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA): the ~16,569 bp circular, maternally inherited multicopy genome of mitochondria; 37 genes, a variant genetic code, a germline bottleneck, and links to MELAS, LHON, and MERRF disease.
Mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome
Mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome is a group of inherited disorders in which cells contain too few copies of mitochondrial DNA, caused by autosomal recessive variants in nuclear genes.
Mitochondrial DNA-associated Leigh syndrome
Mitochondrial DNA-associated Leigh syndrome spectrum (mtDNA-LSS, maternally inherited Leigh syndrome, MILS): Leigh syndrome caused by mtDNA variants, most often m.8993T>G/C in MT-ATP6, with heteroplasmy-driven severity and supportive care only.
Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy
Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy is a mitochondrial disease in which defective respiratory-chain energy production causes both nervous-system and skeletal-muscle disease, covering the classic syndromes MELAS, MERRF, Kearns-Sayre, NARP, and MNGIE.