Research Overview

The central theme of our research is the application of engineering, biochemistry, and molecular biology to quantitatively analyze and redirect cellular metabolism. In particular, we use an approach called metabolic flux analysis (MFA) to quantify the rates, or "fluxes", of intracellular metabolic pathways in a variety of cell models of relevance to medicine and biotechnology. In addition to tool-oriented research aimed at Enhancing MFA Methodologies, we are actively pursuing research in four specific application areas: Diabetes & Obesity, Cancer Metabolism, Cell Culture Engineering, and Photosynthesis Research. Although diverse in their biological scope, all projects rely on our lab's core expertise to integrate numerous metabolic measurements into a quantitative map of cell metabolism using rigorous mathematical models, with the ultimate goal of deciphering how metabolic networks are natively regulated and how they can be further engineered to achieve a desired outcome.