Lab News

Rick who started his PhD 1st of November got his diploma yesterday “with distinction“. Well done Rick!

With shock and disbelieve we learned that our colleague, collaborator and supervisor dr Wilfred Roling, associated professor from our department, died on Friday the 25th of September, at the age of 48 years. Wilfred was passionate about science, our expert in microbial ecology, and a quiet rock in the often dynamic organisation of the department.

Iraes wrote a very concise and clear review on Metabolism at Evolutionary Optimal States Abstract Metabolism is generally required for cellular maintenance and for the generation of offspring under conditions that support growth. The rates, yields (efficiencies), adaptation time and robustness of metabolism are therefore key determinants of cellular fitness. For biotechnological applications and our

Biogenesis, maintenance and dynamics of glycosomes in trypanosomatid parasites Highlights • Glycosomes are specialized peroxisomes in protists of the taxon Kinetoplastea • Glycosomes compartmentalize enzymes of glycolysis and some other metabolic processes • Compartmentation compensates for a lack of feedback regulation of glycolytic enzymes • Glycosome turnover and dynamics play important roles in remodelling of

Our lab has been rather successful lately with grants. Frank obtained a new EraSysApp grant for yeast systems biology (PD for 2 years), Bas got a STW proposal funded (1 PhD still open) for developing methods to select for product yield using our water-in-oil emulsion system (see Bachmann PNAS 2013). Bas is still looking for a

Coco van Boxtel wins the NWO-STAR Master student competition (together with three others) for her proposal on scheduling antibiotic drugs to fight microbial infections. STAR is an initiative of NWO, the Dutch funding agency, from which our Institute (AIMMS) obtained a grant to support 4 PhD projects on antimicrobial research.

four of us (Frank, Bas, Johan and Coco) have visited the lab of Eric van Nimwegen in Basel to see the “Mother Machine” in action and to discuss single-cell growth, regulation of gene expression and many more things. Very useful and enjoyable!

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