NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Japan

这一行动资助乔纳森M。2013年夏天，加州大学圣地亚哥分校的Monk在日本奈良的奈良科学技术研究所进行了一项工程研究项目。 该项目的名称是"改进E.使用基因组规模计算模型和高通量实验筛选的大肠杆菌基因。诺贝尔奖获得者雅克·莫诺博士说：“对E。大肠杆菌对大象来说是正确的，"这表明从一个看似简单的有机体如大肠杆菌中获得的知识。大肠杆菌广泛适用于所有生物体。 该项目将计算建模与高通量实验相结合，以提高对基因产物如何相互作用以实现细胞目标并在大肠杆菌中赋予鲁棒性的理解。 传统上，确定遗传相互作用是一个非常具有挑战性和耗时的过程，但新技术正在改变这一点。 现在可以构建大规模的双突变体文库来筛选遗传相互作用。 分析这些数据集可以通过使用包含生物体中分子组分及其相互作用的最新信息的生化网络重建来有效地完成。 该NSF奖项资助的研究将研究员在系统生物学建模方面的专业知识与主办机构在实验性双突变体筛选方面的专业知识相结合，以确定并更好地表征遗传相互作用对E的影响。大肠杆菌代谢 该项目正在进一步了解这一重要模式生物的基因功能和途径结构，并最终可能导致新型组合抗生素疗法的开发。 新的代谢活动和基因的发现将有助于代谢工程、基础生物学理解和药物设计，其中新发现的酶可能被证明是新抗生素疗法的新靶点，以对抗病原菌。EAPSI奖学金的更广泛影响包括为研究员提供美国以外的第一手研究经验;介绍各自所在地的科学，科学政策和科学基础设施;以及社会，文化和语言的方向。 这些活动符合NSF的目标，即在科学家，工程师和教育工作者的职业生涯早期进行国际合作教育，从而确保具有全球意识的美国科学工作者。 这个NSF奖项代表了UCSD系统生物学研究小组和奈良科学技术研究所之间的重要合作。 这两个研究小组的共同目标是研究大肠杆菌的系统生物学。大肠杆菌，并拥有互补的研究专业知识和设备。 其结果是一个富有成效的合作，将持续多年。 该奖项的成果也将用于教育。 该项目的方法和结果将被纳入UCSD课程，以教授系统生物学的实验方面，并将用于课堂项目的教育目的。 此外，该项目产生的重要发现将在高知名度的科学期刊上发表，新的基因和蛋白质注释将提交给公共数据库，以确保这一信息在全球范围内传播。

This action funds Jonathan M. Monk of the University of California, San Diego to conduct a research project in Engineering during the summer of 2013 at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Nara, Japan. The project title is "Improving Characterization of E. Coli Genes Using Genome-Scale Computational Models and High-Throughput Experimental Screens." The host scientist is Dr. Hirotada Mori.Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Jacques Monod said, "What is true for E. coli is true for the elephant," indicating that knowledge gained from an organism as seemingly simple as E. coli is broadly applicable to all living organisms. This project combines computational modeling with high-throughput experiments to improve understanding of how gene products interact to achieve cellular objectives and confer robustness in Escherichia coli. Traditionally, determining genetic interactions is a very challenging and time consuming process, but new technologies are changing this. Large scale double mutant libraries can now be constructed to screen for genetic interactions. Analyzing these datasets can be done efficiently by using biochemical network reconstructions that contain up-to-date information on molecular components and their interactions in an organism. This NSF award funds research that combines the Fellow's expertise in systems biology modeling with the expertise of the host institution in experimental double mutant screens to identify and better characterize the effect of genetic interactions on E. coli metabolism. The project is furthering the understanding of gene function and pathway architecture in this important model organism and could ultimately lead to the development of novel combinatorial antibiotic therapies. The discovery of new metabolic activities and genes will be useful for metabolic engineering, fundamental biological understanding and drug design where newly identified enzymes could prove to be novel targets for new antibiotic therapies to fight against pathogenic bacteria.Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. This NSF award represents an important collaboration between the Systems Biology Research Group at UCSD and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. Both of these groups share the goal of studying the systems biology of E. coli and have complementary research expertise and equipment. The result is a productive collaboration that will last for years. The results of this award will also be used in education. The methodologies and results of this project will be incorporated into UCSD courses to teach the experimental aspects of systems biology and will be used for educational purposes in class projects. Additionally, important discoveries resulting from this project will be published in high profile scientific journals and new gene and protein annotations will be submitted to public databases to ensure worldwide dissemination of this information.