A combined experimental and modelling approach for the Weimberg pathway optimisation

The Snoep Lab’s core research efforts are in Computational Systems Biology; a combined experimental, modeling and theoretical approach to quantitatively understand the functional behavior of Biological Systems resulting from the characteristics of their components. Our main focus is on metabolism, of human pathogens such as Plasmodium falciparum, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but also of breast cancer cell lines, and on modelling disease states such as glucose homeostatis in type 2 diabetes, and ...

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.

The oxidative Weimberg pathway for the five-step pentose degradation to α ketoglutarate from Caulobacter crescentus is a key route for sustainable bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to added-value products and biofuels. Here, we developed a novel iterative approach involving initial rate kinetics, progress curves, and enzyme cascades, with high resolution NMR analysis of intermediate dynamics, and multiple cycles of kinetic modelling analyses to construct and validate a quantitative model ...