(367b) Engineering Metabolic Reaction Networks 

The improved productivity of a bioreactor depends to a large extent on the development of stable cell lines with optimized pathways that convert nutrients into desired products at the maximum possible yield. We are using elementary mode analysis to theoretically evaluate metabolic networks for the best pathway structure. Such pathways can be practically implemented using knockout mutations that reduce complex metabolic networks to reaction networks of minimal but optimized functionality. Moreover, the identification of the complete set of elementary modes in a metabolic network represents an objective set of discrete states of the metabolism. The set of possible reaction trajectories can be analyzed using tools of statistical thermodynamics which permit the prediction of the most probable and stable pathway structure in a metabolic network. While this approach has been validated in several prokaryotic systems it is expected to be applicable and useful also in more complex, eukaryotic cell systems.