Titill: Notkun reiknilíkana við rannsóknir á efnaskiptum í manninum.

Dr. Óttar Rolfsson, ottarr@hi.is, Rannsóknarsetur í kerfislíffræði, Háskóli Íslands, Sturlugata 8, 101 Reykjavík, Ísland.

Title: Metabolic networks and their applications in human metabolic research.

Abstract: Genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions are subject to in silico research which, in many cases, entails predicting an organism’s phenotypic response to gene deletions and/or environmental perturbations. These properties have resulted in widespread applications of metabolic models in microbial bioengineering, contextualisation of high-throughput data, and biochemical pathway discovery. While the number of microbial genome-scale metabolic networks has increased exponentially over the past 15 years, fewer have been reconstructed for higher eukaryotes as their inherent complexity results in larger and more complex models that are harder to experimentally validate. The human genome scale metabolic network reconstruction RECON 2 is comprised of 7400 reactions and 5000 metabolites and represents one of the most detailed human metabolic reconstructions generated to date. In this talk I will report on selected studies being carried out at the Center for Systems Biology that highlight the applications of the human reconstruction. The emphasis will be on how the reconstruction can be used as a hypotheses generator and hence how it serves as a research tool to complement traditional metabolic research methodologies.