Seminar

Quantitative metabolic modeling for biofuel production at the Joint BioEnergy Institute

Hector Garcia Martin, PhD

The goal of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) is to produce fundamental scientific discoveries to enable the development of commercially viable processes for large-scale conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into fuels. The Quantitative Metabolic Modeling (QMM) directorate at the Fuels Synthesis Division is devoted to developing models of metabolism which are both quantitative and predictive, in order to improve biofuel production in a rationally directed fashion. Dr. Hector García will describe how the QMM directorate fits in the general JBEI strategy and how they use experimental, computational and mathematical tools to achieve their goal. He will first show how the use of 13C labeling data allows them to make quantitative predictions of metabolism through the two-scale 13C metabolic flux analysis (2S-13C MFA) method. Secondly, he will show how they used quantitative proteomic data us to increase the production titers of limonene, a biofuel molecule. Finally, he will present new web-based tools for data storage and flux visualization.