Advances in flux balance analysis.
Biology is going through a paradigm shift from reductionist to holistic, systems-based approaches. The complete genome sequence for a number of organisms is available and the analysis of genome sequence data is proving very useful. Thus, genome sequencing projects and bioinformatic analyses are leading to a complete 'parts catalog' of the molecular components in many organisms. The next challenge will be to reconstruct and simulate overall cellular functions based on the extensive reductionist information. Recent advances have been made in the area of flux balance analysis, a mathematical modeling approach often utilized by metabolic engineers to quantitatively simulate microbial metabolism.
University of Delaware, Department of Chemical Engineering, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
Kenneth J
KJ
Kauffman
Purusharth
P
Prakash
Jeremy S
JS
Edwards
D019295:Computational Biology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013816:Thermodynamics