CAREER: Unlocking Organism's Potential Using Computational and Experimental Approaches

该项目由工程理事会CBET部门的生物技术，生物化学和生物质工程计划以及NSF生物学理事会MCB部门内的网络和监管集群支持，将创建新的计算工具，可广泛用于增强对生物技术和环境中重要细菌的理解。 尽管已经对一千种微生物的基因组进行了测序，但这些测序的生物体中的许多还没有通过实验得到很好的表征。然而，这些基因组序列中的信息可用于生成代谢和转录调控的计算模型。该项目的目标是使用这些模型来设计实验，以提高对这些特征较少的生物体的代谢和调节的理解。通过结合计算和实验方法，PI将阐明希瓦氏菌（具有环境和生物技术应用的细菌）的两种菌株中的代谢和转录调控网络。该项目的结果将是对这些细菌代谢和调节的更好理解，以及一系列用于实验设计和模型优化的计算工具，这些工具可以广泛应用于其他测序生物。本科生将参与计算和实验研究活动作为本项目的一部分。将开发与这些研究活动相关的在线课程材料和会前研讨会，以教育威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校和其他机构的本科生和研究生。此外，还将为K-12和研究生女生组织讲习班和活动，以更多地了解科学、工程和学术界的职业。

This project, supported by the Biotechnology, Biochemical and Biomass Engineering program, in the CBET division within the Engineering directorate, and the Networks and Regulation Cluster within the MCB division within Biology directorate at NSF, will create new computational tools that can be widely used to enhance the understanding of bacteria that are important in biotechnology and the environment. Even though a thousand microbial genomes have been sequenced many of these sequenced organisms have not been well characterized experimentally. However, the information in these genome sequences can be used to generate computational models of metabolism and transcriptional regulation. The goals of this project are to use such models to design experiments that improve the understanding of metabolism and regulation in these less characterized organisms. By combining computational and experimental approaches the PI will elucidate the metabolic and transcriptional regulatory networks in two strains of Shewanella (bacteria with environmental and biotechnology applications). The results from this project will be an improved understanding of metabolism and regulation in these bacteria and a collection of computational tools for experimental design and model refinement that can be broadly applied to other sequenced organisms. Undergraduate students will participate in both computational and experimental research activities as part of this project. On-line course materials and pre-conference workshops will be developed related to these research activities to educate undergraduate and graduate students at UW-Madison and other institutions. In addition, workshops and events will be organized for female K-12 and graduate students to learn more about careers in science, engineering and academia.