title: An analysis of a 'community-driven' reconstruction of the human metabolic network.
abstract: Following a strategy similar to that used in baker's yeast (Herrgård et al. Nat Biotechnol 26:1155-1160, 2008). A consensus yeast metabolic network obtained from a community approach to systems biology (Herrgård et al. 2008; Dobson et al. BMC Syst Biol 4:145, 2010). Further developments towards a genome-scale metabolic model of yeast (Dobson et al. 2010; Heavner et al. BMC Syst Biol 6:55, 2012). Yeast 5-an expanded reconstruction of theSaccharomyces cerevisiaemetabolic network (Heavner et al. 2012) and inSalmonella typhimurium(Thiele et al. BMC Syst Biol 5:8, 2011). A community effort towards a knowledge-base and mathematical model of the human pathogenSalmonellatyphimurium LT2(Thiele et al. 2011), a recent paper (Thiele et al. Nat Biotechnol 31:419-425, 2013). A community-driven global reconstruction of human metabolism (Thiele et al. 2013) described a much improved 'community consensus' reconstruction of the human metabolic network, called Recon 2, and the authors (that include the present ones) have made it freely available via a database at http://humanmetabolism.org/ and in SBML format at Biomodels (http://identifiers.org/biomodels.db/MODEL1109130000). This short analysis summarises the main findings, and suggests some approaches that will be able to exploit the availability of this model to advantage.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL UK ; Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, Princess Street, Manchester, M1 7DN UK.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Swainston
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mendes
authors.forename: Douglas B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Kell
keywords: Metabolic networks; Metabolism; Modelling; Networks; Systems biology