Current Research
- Biosystems Engineering
Given the explosion and availability of biological data,
computational analysis in Biological sciences has become a necessity. There is hope that
this will increase applications in biotechnology, resulting in a strong need for quantification
of biological systems. Biological systems are highly interconnected and hierarchical
with unique structures, which are being discovered by molecular biologists. Our group
is interested in developing novel computational and theoretical methods to analyze
biological structures and interpret the massive volumes of data generated by experiments.
We are specifically looking at Genetic switches, Metabolic regulation, and Signal
transduction systems.
- Flux analysis
Organisms screened from nature are typically optimized
for growth. Quantification of metabolic network of an organism will help to engineer
metabolism for a specific end use. Techniques like metabolic flux analysis and elementary
mode analysis can be used to optimize production of chemicals at the cellular level.
We are using such techniques to optimize diacetyl production from L. casei. We have used
flux analysis to illustrate the existence of GABA shunt in A. niger. Currently, we are trying
to link flux analysis to microbial growth models. Such models will help in optimizing the
performance and operation of bioprocesses. For example, we have attempted to develop optimal
feed strategy to operate simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of starch in a
fed-batch mode using structured models.
- Bioreaction Engineering
Kinetics for cell growth and product formation
is essential for bioprocess quantification and reactor design. We have developed
an optimal model to characterize growth kinetics of organisms on multiple substrates.
The model can be extended to represent growth on complex media. The model assumes
that the cells grow optimally on multiple substrate and have evolved controls to maximize
growth
- Food Engineering
Multiphase transport plays an important role in food
processing. In our lab we are interested in two aspects, application of multiphase
transport to (i) dehydration of biological material and (ii) Controlled atmosphere and
modified atmosphere storage of foods.
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Selected
Publications
- Quantitative analysis of GAL genetic switch of Saccharomyces
cerevisiae reveals that nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of Gal80p results in a highly sensitive
response to galactose, Malkhey Verma, Paike Jayadeva Bhat, and K. V. Venkatesh, The Journal
of Biological chemistry, [278] (49), 48764-48769, 2003
- Allosteric interactions and bifunctionality make
the response of glutamine synthetase cascade system of Escherichia coli robust and
ultrasensitive, Vivek K. Mutalik, Parag Shah and K. V. Venkatesh, The Journal
of Biological Chemistry, [278] (29), 26327-26332, 2003
- Robust global sensitivity in multiple enzyme
cascade system explains how the downstream cascade structure may remain unaffected
by cross-talk, Vivek K. Mutalik, Aditya P. Singh, Jeremy S. Edwards and K. V. Venkatesh,
FEBS Letters, [558] (1-3), 79-84, 2004
- Multiple feedback loops are key to a robust dynamic
performance of tryptophan regulation in Escherichia coli, K. V. Venkatesh,
Sharad Bhartiya and Anurag Ruhela, FEBS Letters, 563, 234 -240, 2004
- A Method for the Determination of Flux in
Elementary Modes, and its Application to Lactobacillus rhamnosus, M.G. Poolman,
K.V. Venkatesh, M.K. Pidcock, and D.A. Fell, Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2004)
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