Physics Commons^™

Predicting Synthetic Rescues In Metabolic Networks, Adilson E. Motter, Natali Gulbahce, Eivind Almaas, Albert-László Barabási

Albert-László Barabási

An important goal of medical research is to develop methods to recover the loss of cellular function due to mutations and other defects. Many approaches based on gene therapy aim to repair the defective gene or to insert genes with compensatory function. Here, we propose an alternative, network-based strategy that aims to restore biological function by forcing the cell to either bypass the functions affected by the defective gene, or to compensate for the lost function. Focusing on the metabolism of single-cell organisms, we computationally study mutants that lack an essential enzyme, and thus are unable to grow or have …