David’s group formed nearly thirty years ago with initial interests in computer simulation of metabolism and the theory of metabolic control. To these it has since added interests in modelling signal transduction, in various different approaches to network analysis of metabolism, and in reconstructing metabolic networks from genomic data. In the course of this research, he has addressed problems in microbial, plant and mammalian metabolism, often in conjunction with collaborators who have contributed experimental results.
His work forms part of the emerging field of Systems Biology, in that we are concerned with understanding how biological function arises from the interactions between many components, and with building predictive models. Potential applications of our work include the design of changes in cellular metabolism to improve the output of product such as antibiotics, detecting vulnerable sites in cellular networks that could be targets for drugs to control disease-causing organisms, and improved understanding of how organisms manage to adjust their metabolism in response to environmental changes and other signals.
Research group membership
Research projects
Research Supervisions
- Computer modelling of metabolic networks
- Designs for metabolic engineering
Further information