In this forward-looking session, Martin Picard, PhD, Columbia University scientist and co-director of the Science of Health program, invites participants to see health and healing through the radically different lens of energy and mitochondria. Drawing on his pioneering work in mitochondrial biology, bioenergetics, and psychosocial science, Picard reframes our mitochondria as more than cellular powerhouses. They are the body’s early warning system, signaling imbalance long before symptoms or disease take hold.

Picard explains how mitochondria respond first to stress, trauma, environment, and lifestyle. His research offers a new view for understanding healthcare and medicine to challenge how we define disease, treatment, prevention, and healing, especially with chronic conditions.

This session explores how a shift to viewing human health through an energetic lens might fundamentally change healthcare: shifting focus from late-stage intervention to early detection, resilience, and sustained vitality. Participants will gain insight into an emerging scientific framework - Mitochondrial Psychobiology - that connects energy regulation to aging, stress, mental health, and whole-person wellbeing.