Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

All organisms, from microbes to flies to people, have physical characteristics, their phenotypes, that are in part a function of their genetic material, their genotype. These phenotypes are what distinguish one organism from the next and can be as innocuous as eye color or as biologically crucial as basic metabolism or response to a particular drug. Modern science is very good at determining genotype, reading an organism's genetic material, but still working on connecting genotype to phenotype. My research seeks to better explain this connection in biological networks using the interacting genes and proteins of a metabolic network as a model system. The Long Term Goal of my research program is to describe the path between genomic molecular diversity and complex biological phenotypes, and focus on metabolic networks to understand this connection. Specifically, we quantify the genetic and metabolic interactions that regulate a network of enzymes that reduce and oxidize the metabolic cofactor NADP(H) to define and understand biological networks in general. Short-term Aims: I have two short term Aims for this granting period: 1) Define the metabolic and biochemical effects (phenotype) of variation across the NADP(H) network in Drosophila melanogaster 2) Identify novel factors (genes) that contribute to this NADP(H) network Over the 5 years of this grant, these two Aims will allow us to understand the network as a whole and provide fundamental knowledge of metabolic networks in general.