Maria-Anna Sotiropoulou
I am currently doing an internship (Research Preparatory Course) in isb group focused on understanding the intracellular metabolic changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease. I work on the modeling side of a method called metabolic flux analysis (MFA), which helps us understand how metabolism changes in the brain during disease. While the experiments are done in neuroblastoma cells (a cell line similar to neurons), I focus on building and improving the computational models that interpret the data.
A key part of my work is to quantitatively determine metabolic fluxes, which show how metabolites are converted inside cells. These fluxes cannot be directly measured with normal lab techniques, because they reflect internal rates of reactions that happen too quickly and invisibly for standard tools. Instead, we use a method called 13C metabolic flux analysis (13C MFA), which uses mathematical modelling to quantify the fluxes based on the distribution of isotopically labeled substrates. In our study we also use the Elementary Metabolite Unit (EMU) framework, that simplifies the calculations by breaking down the metabolic network into smaller units. We then use these models to calculate the metabolic fluxes based on experimental data.
I am planning to begin a PhD soon, where I aim to continue developing advanced modeling tools for studying metabolism in neurodegenerative diseases.