Projects

Up-regulation of glycolytic flux (glucose to lactate conversion), also known as the “Warburg effect”, has been associated with 90% of cancers. We implemented a systems biology approach in order to improve the overall understanding of the “Warburg effect” as well as identifying drug targets within the glycolytic pathway.

Hypoglycaemia and lactic acidosis are key diagnostics for poor chances of survival in malaria patients. In this project we aim to test to what extent the metabolic activity of Plasmodium falciparum contributes to a changed glucose metabolism in malaria patients. The approach is to start with detailed bottom up models for the parasite and then merge these with more coarse grained models at the whole body level.

The goal of the project is to establish a new biotechnological platform for the production of hydroxy-amino acids, since the current production of these important building blocks is very expensive. Enzyme engineering, systems biotechnology and metabolic engineering will be used in a synthetic biology approach.