Systems Biology of Yeast Metabolism

Metabolic Engineering relies on the Design-Build-Test cycle. This cycle includes technologies like mathematical modeling of metabolism, genome editing and advanced tools for phenotypic characterization. In recent years there have been advances in several of these technologies, which has enabled faster development of metabolically engineered strains that can be used for production of fuels and chemicals, but it is still challenging to perform efficient design. There is therefore in particular a need for advancing our ability to model metabolism, and this can be achieved through integration of systems biology tools. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is widely used for production of fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and materials. Through metabolic engineering of this yeast a number of novel industrial processes have been developed over the last 10 years. Besides its wide industrial use, S. cerevisiae also serves as an eukaryal model organism, and many systems biology tools have therefore been developed for this organism. These tools can be used for detailed phenotypic characterization as well as for metabolic design. In this lecture, new results from advanced analysis of the metabolism of yeast and it will be demonstrated how new knowledge can be integrated into mathematical models with improved design capabilities.