Recently, the team of Academician Wei Huang and Professor Lin Li from Institute of Advanced Materials, Nanjing Tech University, published a review entitled  “Optical/Electrical Methods for Detecting Mitochondrial Energy Metabolism” as a Front Cover (2022, 51, 71-127）in top international review journal Chem. Soc. Rev. (IF = 54.564), which represented the successful completion of the team’s work on “Mitochondrial Delivery-Detection-Regulation”. The team has a long-standing commitment to using bioelectronics to analyze mitochondrial function and related diseases and has published two consecutive reviews as Front Cover in Chem. Soc. Rev. involving optical regulation-related dyes and delivery-related stimulus response strategies, respectively.

The review firstly summarized the basic structure and biological functions of mitochondria and the important molecular pathways of mitochondrial energy metabolism from the biological perspective; secondly, it analyzed and discussed the design principles, detection mechanisms, advantages and disadvantages of various optical and electrochemical detection methods from the chemical perspective; finally, it systematically reviewed the classical and latest applications of relevant methods in the detection of small molecules, macromolecules and ions. The optical and electrochemical detection methods and their applications of mitochondrial energy metabolism biomarkers are combed completely and systematically for the first time in this review, which fills the gap in the field of mitochondria. This review not only provides an important tool for researchers from different disciplines to understand the scientific language and description of interdisciplinary fields, but also offers an essential basis for seeking interdisciplinary solutions to mitochondrial problems.

Mr. Wenhui Ji (second-year PhD student), Mr. Xiao Tang (third-year MS student) and Dr. Wei Du (postdoctoral fellow) are the co-first authors, and Associate Professor Qiong Wu, Professor Lin Li, and Academician Wei Huang are the co-corresponding authors. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi, and China-Sweden Joint Mobility Project.