QSB: Kinetic and Regulatory Constraints on Metabolism

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This effort will develop the computational tools that will enable the integrative analysis of the multi-genetic functions that metabolic maps represent. Transcriptional regulatory events will be represented by applying time-dependent Boolean constraints. With this description one can potentially interpret, analyze, and predict the effects of transcriptional regulation on cellular metabolism. Additionally, it is proposed to extract how different regulatory mechanisms can drive the solution to the edges of a solution space, where optimal solutions are calculated and where experimental data is available. Overall, integrating metabolic fluxes with the Boolean representation of regulatory structures will lead to the broadening of genome-scale models of microbes, by which optimal growth and metabolic secretion patterns are represented. Several graduate students will acquire cross-training in computation, life science, biochemical engineering, and biotechnology.