BAC: Intelligent Computing for Analysis of Metabolic and Physiological Systems

9511737 Liao This project is on research to develop a new framework for metabolic modeling. The modeling approach treats the system at two levels: a component (molecular) level and a systems level. The component level consists of mechanistic or hybrid/fuzzy models. The systems level is the differential equations that result from the mass balances on the components, according to the metabolic, regulatory, or signal transduction pathways. This modeling strategy will be developed and applied to metabolic and global regulation pathways in Escherichia coli. Specific problems to be examined which suggest hitherto unknown regulatory mechanisms include: (1) the regulation of glucose uptake by enzymes; (2) the interaction of central metabolism with nitrogen regulation; and (3) the interaction of central metabolism with the heat shock response. ***