Alladi Ramakrishnan Hall

Mathematical modeling of human metabolism

Swagatika Sahoo

Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai

Metabolism remains a common denominator for a myriad of human diseases, including cancer. Metabolic diseases are complex owing to the contribution of multiple components, e.g., genetics, nutrition, gut bacteria, and lifestyle. Therefore, there is a need of a systems approach to integrate these components and identify the precise disease driving factors, as well as, predicting effective therapy. Accordingly, the human metabolic network, deemed Recon serves as one of the best platforms to integrate patient-specific ‘omics’ data as well as, the components stated above, all together generating condition-specific models to study their integral inter-relationship. These models are built using the steady-state assumption, i.e., constraint-based metabolic modeling, and provide detailed mechanistic explanations for the underlying biochemistry for the typical patient-specific symptoms. Additionally, when plugged in with diet/drug information, robust therapy can be suggested. Subsequently, the developed models can be expanded to include kinetic parameters (i.e., hybrid modeling) to capture the dynamics of the disease progression. Such modeling approaches mark novel dimensions for better healthcare and are in agreement with practicing P4 (predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory) medicine.