A project with real potential for scientific breakthroughs. This was the conclusion of external reviewers after a mid-term evaluation of the Mitochondrial health project. They rated all the work, so far, as excellent.

As part of the TiFN ways of working a mid-term review was held in March 2019 to evaluate the scientific quality and progress versus the original plan. For this purpose, the project Mitochondrial Health was reviewed by Prof Dr John Mathers (Professor of Human Nutrition at Newcastle University UK) and Dr Paulo Oliveira (Principal Investigator at the Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal).

Mitochondrial Health started in 2016 and is carried out at Maastricht University, Wageningen University and the University Medical Center Groningen in collaboration with Nutricia and FrieslandCampina. The overall objective is to examine the potential of nutrition and food components to stimulate mitochondrial function. In addition, it is investigated whether improving mitochondrial function in muscles will also improve muscle health in elderly.

The PhD students gave excellent presentations on the work already done, and this resulted in a lively and constructive scientific discussion with the reviewers.

The reviewers summarized their findings in a mid-term evaluation form that was presented to Patrick Schrauwen as project leader, Ronald Visscher in his capacity as managing director and theme director Rob Beudeker. The reviewers expressed their appreciation of the scientific quality of the work done and the presentations given. They highlighted the potential of the project to lead to innovative breakthroughs. Finally, they also gave some suggestions for further improvement of the project, especially in the field of communication and PR around the project, which may also facilitate the recruitment of test persons.