Partner Institute for Computational Biology (PICB) Workshop

The Organization and Control of Metabolic Networks

4-6 August, 2007, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS

Organizers:

Information:

Systems biology promises to deliver a global and quantitative description of interactions among molecular components within a living cell. The rapid accumulation of biological data in recent years has made it possible to tabulate vast amount of such interactions with varying degrees of confidence. However, correct interpretation of the observed interactions and identification of their physiological role remain tentative due to lack of a deeper understanding of various organization and control issues. Metabolic network provides a good system where some of these issues can be made tangible and specific. Although the overall topology of the metabolic network, traditionally described in terms of various synthetic and degradation pathways, has been worked out by biochemists many years ago, its dynamic response and maintenance under different growth environment and stress conditions, including the underlying regulatory construct, have not been systematically elucidated. Along an independent line of development, metabolic engineering has been driving advances in the new field of synthetic biology, whose aim is to understand and apply the control strategies to redirect biological organisms to do “useful” work.

The goal of this 2-day workshop is to bring together people working on quantitative aspects of metabolism in China (including those from the US who are visiting China over the summer), to review current methodologies as well as to identify issues/problems encountered in both the analysis and application of metabolic control. Through discussions and brain-storming, we hope to identify ripe areas within the large confine of metabolic systems for advances in quantitative system-level understanding, and explore strategies to tackle these problems.

Themes we plan to touch upon include

Ø Experimental and computational methods for studying metabolism and metabolic control
Ø Higher level organization and coordination of metabolic networks
Ø Connection of metabolism and metabolic control to growth physiology and environment
Ø Comparative analysis of metabolic networks and control strategies in different organisms

The workshop will be hosted by the recently established CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology. The six focused sessions (see Timetable) are intended to generate in-depth discussion in each of the focus area. As such, we intend to have only a few short talks in each session to lay out the general theme and background information, saving the bulk of the time for discussion.

Registration:

Since the space is limited, those interested to participate should contact
Dr. Stefan Gruenewald at PICB < stefan@picb.ac.cn > or the principal organizer
Prof. Leihan Tang < lhtang@hkbu.edu.hk >