Research Program

Research Methods

• Metabolic Engineering
• Systems Biology
• Metabolic Flux Analysis
• Elementary Metabolite Units (EMU)

Systems Biology

Systems biology is the study of living cells, viewed as integrated and interacting networks of genes, proteins, metabolites and biochemical reactions. Instead of analyzing individual components or aspects of the system, we focus on all the components and the interactions among the dfferent components at multiple regulatory levels as part of one system. In particular, we are interested in understanding how these complex interactions give rise to the function and behavior of living cells.

As genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolic methods become more widely used, a critical need arises to integrate and analyze diverse data from multiple experimental sources using interdisciplinary tools. To this end, our research group uses a systems approach for studying cellular behavior with models of increasing complexity, including:

1) Multivariate regression models

2) Artificial neural networks

3) Genome-scale cellular interaction networks

These models integrate system-wide measurements across multiple functional levels and provide a first step in linking genetics and physiology, genotype-phenotype relationship.

References

Antoniewicz MR, Stephanopoulos G, Kelleher JK.
Evaluation of regression models in metabolic physiology: Predicting fluxes from isotopic data without knowledge of the pathway. Metabolomics 2(1): 41-52, 2006

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