The 2017 GENiE Workshop C. elegans Consensus Metabolic Reconstruction

Topic

Five attributes define life: motility, growth, excitability, reproduction and metabolism, whereby metabolism is the most obligatory since it supplies energy and substances needed for all the others. Although studied for centuries, our picture of metabolism is still incomplete. A premier model organism for the study of metabolism is the small roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, which enables to study the relation between nutrition, gene expression, metabolism and phenotypic traits. Recently the first two metabolic reconstruction of C. elegans were published. These reconstructions serve as first blueprints of C. elegans metabolism and lay the foundation for further research in this direction. The first reconstruction, iCEL1273, 1985 metabolic reactions and 887 compounds, while ElegCyc contains 1914 reactions and 1640 compounds. So far it is not clear to which extend the two reconstructions overlap. Parallel to this two published version different other groups have been working on their own reconstructions.

Schedule

During the first day we will have several scientific sessions in which several participants can present their current work on C. elegans metabolism, metabolic reconstruction or metabolomics. Talks will be 15-20 minutes plus 10 minutes of Q&ersand;A. The evening session will include a key note speaker (Christ Steinbeck, TBC) and a discussion round on future collaborative efforts. The second day will include practical work on flux balance analysis, metabolic reconstruction and other hands on activities.

For details of the program, and the complete schedule, please visit the workshop website.

Organizers

Olivia Casanueva
Group Leader
Babraham Institute
Epigenetics ISPG
Olivia.Casanueva@babraham.ac.uk

Janna Hastings
Babraham Institute
Epigenetics ISPG
Janna.Hastings@babraham.ac.uk

Christoph Kaleta
Research Group Medical Systems Biology
Institute for Experimental Medicine
Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel (UKSH Campus)
c.kaleta@iem.uni-kiel.de

Michael Witting
Research Team Leader “C. elegans Metabolomics & Lipidomics”
Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry
Helmholtz Zentrum München
michael.witting@helmholtz-muenchen.de