Designing Efficient Metabolic Networks for Biofuels Production
Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 2:00-3:00 PM EDT
For the archived webinar, click here.
Slides and Q&A are available to SBE members here.
Friedrich Srienc, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN
About this Webinar
Biotechnological processes depend to a large extent on the productivity of the organisms used. Recent advances in systems biology and bioinformatics have made it possible to rigorously analyze the functioning of complex metabolic networks using first principles. Such analysis provides a valuable basis for the rational design of metabolic networks as genetic modifications can be predicted that push metabolic capabilities of cells to the theoretical limits. In this presentation we will demonstrate the use of Elementary Mode Analysis to identify all possible pathways that are embedded in a metabolic network and use this information to reduce the metabolic network to the most efficient operation. Several case studies related to biofuels production will show that this rational approach leads to highly productive organisms.
Friedrich Srienc Biosketch
Prof. Friedrich Srienc is a faculty member of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and of the BioTechnology Institute at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis/St.Paul. He received a doctoral degree in biotechnology from the Technical University in Graz, Austria (1980). After four years of postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena he joined the faculty in Minnesota in 1985. His interests in Biochemical Engineering include cell population dynamics, flow cytometry, polyhydroxyalkanoic acids, and metabolic engineering. His group has pioneered the application of single-cell measuring techniques for monitoring and controlling microbial and mammalian cell cultures, and more recently, the application of systems biological tools for the design of optimized cells. He has published over 140 research articles. He serves on the editorial board of several biotechnology related journals and is associate editor of Journal of Biotechnology.