On March 28 we have an exciting number of presentations scheduled by yeast experimentalists and theoretical systems biologists trying to work out the underlying principles of metabolic regulation. You are welcome to attend this meeting. For more information, go and see the meeting information here.

You can find it here: Our new Current Opinion in Microbiology Review

It discusses how different cultivation methods can be used to select mutant bacteria with improved macroscopic growth parameters and our current understanding of whether such parameters trade off.

The Systems Bioinformatics section of the VU University in Amsterdam (NL) is offering a 3-year position for a

PhD student to study How a single cell integrates multiple signals via one of its G-protein coupled receptors

We are looking for a master student with a degree in systems biology, biophysics, or molecular biology who is highly motivated to pursue a PhD study. You should be highly interested in combining state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy with theoretical methods to understand how single human cells integrate signals via one of its G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and its downstream signalling network. You will be working with FRET-sensors, which monitor the activation of particular G-proteins upon GPCR activation, and fluorescent reporters of downstream signalling activity. Theoretical methods from systems biology and biophysics shall be used for data analysis, mechanistic understanding and predictive modelling.

This project is part of the European Marie Curie ITN project “CaSR Biomedicine”. It combines the expertise of about 10 EU-research labs that aim to understand the role of the calcium sensing receptor, a GPCR, from protein to patient level. This vacancy is at the section Systems Bioinformatics (www.teusinklab.nl, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and the Molecular Cytology lab (www.molecularcytology.nl, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Students are only eligible if at the time of the selection by the host university, the candidate has not resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc) in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the starting date.

Please send your CV (including your grade list) and the contact information of two  previous supervisors to Prof Dr Frank J Bruggeman (f.j.bruggeman@vu.nl).

For additional information see:
http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/hp/ipa/forschung/forschungsgruppen/kallay-enikoe-tumour-pathology/projects/recruitment/

As part of the BioSB Research School, which brings together bioinformaticians and systems biologists, we organised an introductory systems-biology course. In this course, we focussed on the basics of mathematical modelling of molecular circuits and the emergent properties of those circuits, such as their (in)stability, robustness and (in)sensitivity properties. We will organise a similar course next year; so keep an eye on the BioSB website to stay informed, or register for their mailing list.

In this PLoS Comp Bio paper, we study how metabolic constraints and optimisation objectives influence optimal states of metabolism and how those optimal states can be expressed in terms of metabolic routes. Optimal states are often represented by optimal-solution spaces, which are mathematical objects that cannot be readily interpreted. We express such solution spaces in terms of metabolic pathways that are intuitive and understandable by biochemists and biotechnologist studying metabolism. This paper is related to one of our previous papers, which can be found here.

Curious which papers the lab produced? Try this pubmed query. You will find our new work on:

• Integrative Omics analysis of L lactis at different growth rates in the chemostat
• Microbial community modelling
• Solution spaces of genome-scale models
• Optimality principles of nutrient-uptake and growth rate
• Single-cell measurement of single RNA molecules