Recently, Dr. Heike Angerer, postdoc in the Structural Bioenergetics Group at IBC2, received a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG), enabling her to study the importance of de novo synthesized long-chain fatty acid chains in mitochondria. Heike’s previous work showed that long acyl chains are required for the function of several mitochondrial enzymes, including the essential respiratory chain, sustaining cellular energy supply. In the next two years, Heike aims at understanding the impact of mitochondrial fatty acids on mitochondrial function, since malfunction in this pathway was linked to various human diseases.