The Center for Systems Biology focuses on human metabolism. In addition, the Center will establish an industrial biotechnology focused program. The systems biology of thermophilic bacteria found in Iceland will be studied. Application of such knowledge will be deployed to develop processes that will lead to the fixation of CO2, H2 and H2S that comes from geothermal well in Iceland. If developed, such processing technology could be used on a worldwide basis as geothermal energy is likely to be a part of the world’s future energy solution.
Biology of Human Metabolism
Metabolism is a foundational process in all living cells. In fact, the ability to metabolize is considered as one of the criteria for being considered a living organism. Metabolism is directly or indirectly involved in essentially all cellular functions and is implicated in all major human disease states. With the state of the annotation of the human genome, it has been possible to perform an initial reconstruction of the genome-scale metabolic network in Homo sapiens. This genome-scale reconstruction opens unprecedented opportunities for basic research in human physiology and disease. The Center for Systems Biology is focused on these newly emerging opportunities and deploys the rapidly developing discipline of systems biology. We do so through four distinct activities:
- continue the iterative metabolic network reconstruction process,
characterize network properties through in silico analysis,
- experimentally fill in gaps in the network, and
- conduct high-throughput drug screens that should lead to better target validation and open up new dimensions in personalized medicine.
Geothermal CO2, photosynthetic micro-algae and photobioreactors
The convergence of light-emitting diode technology, photobioreactor design, algal biotechnology and low energy processing costs make biological fixation of this CO2 into fine chemicals feasible. The Center for Systems Biology is working on projects that are aimed at:
- determining the key performance characteristics of a core unit of a photobioreactor-based factory,
- designing and initiating scale-up of these units into versatile modules,
- determining the spectrum of algal strains that can be cultivated with this system.