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Bioengineering Seminar Series: Ganesh Sriram
Friday, September 13, 2013
9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Pepco Room, Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
For More Information:
Yu Chen
yuchen@umd.edu
Cellular Cartography: Systems Biology Tools to Investigate Metabolism
Ganesh Sriram
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of Maryland, College Park
Detailed investigations of cellular metabolism are crucial to fundamentally understanding cellular behavior and assessing how cells respond to environmental perturbations. Systems biology tools such as isotope labeling, metabolic flux analysis and flux balance analysis enable quantitative dissection of carbon traffic in metabolism. This presentation will discuss the development of computational and experimental tools in this area as well as their application to an algal system (the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum) and a plant system (poplar cell suspensions). Diatoms are postulated to be photosynthetically efficient, but the molecular mechanisms underlying this efficiency are barely known. This presentation will discuss isotope labeling experiments that elucidated a carbon-concentrating mechanism in P. tricornutum. Poplar cells are a model system to study carbon-nitrogen interactions. Particularly, metabolic effects of low supply of nitrogen, an expensive element for plants, have not been systemically documented. To study how cells respond to low nitrogen supply, we designed and performed parallel labeling experiments utilizing a number of isotopically labeled forms of glucose on the cell suspensions. These experiments pointed to mechanisms by which poplar cells maximize nitrogen use efficiency under conditions of limited nitrogen availability. Together, our analyses provide novel insights toward developing metabolic engineering strategies for the studied systems.
This Event is For: Graduate • Faculty • Post-Docs
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