The story

MOTS-c was found in 2015 by Changhan Lee, Pinchas Cohen and colleagues at the University of Southern California, who scanned mitochondrial DNA for hidden short genes. In mice it reversed diet-driven obesity and insulin resistance. In 2018 the Korean-American team showed it moves into the nucleus under stress, the first mitochondrial factor shown to control nuclear genes. In 2021 they showed exercise raises it in human muscle and blood, and that it restores physical capacity in old mice.