METABOLIC FLUX ANALYSIS OF BIODIESEL-PRODUCING E-COLI The last talk in the 2010-11 EBI Seminar Series features Hector Garcia Martin of the Joint BioEnergy Institute. Garcia Martin was born in Bilbao, part of the Basque region in Spain. He studied physics and specialized in solid state physics at the University of the Basque Country. His doctoral studies in condensed matter physics were performed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His interest in biocomplexity and in using mathematical methods in microbial ecology drove him to work at the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, where he worked on metagenomics as a postdoctoral fellow. Seeking a more predictive framework for microbiology and microbial ecology, he started work at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to develop predictive models for pure cultures as well as microbial communities. His abstract: Metabolic flux analysis aims to measure and/or predict the reaction rates for an organism metabolic network. In this talk I will present a short introduction to the two most popular flux analysis techniques: Flux Balance Analysis and 13C Metabolic Flux Analysis. As a working example of how these techniques can be useful in metabolic engineering I will also show how we are combining them to study a biodiesel producing E. coli strain produced at the Joint BioEnergy institute.

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