The Human Body—In ‘Google Map’ FormAn international group of researchers have successfully created the most comprehensive map of the human metabolism, called Recon 2, which details how the body’s converts food into energy, and assembles all of the hormones and proteins that contribute to a normal day’s work for cells and tissues.Genes may form the foundation of the human condition, but it’s their activity, in the shape of the products they make — from enzymes and hormones to nutrients and signalling factors — that dictate how cells interact with each other, and how body systems, such as the way we breakdown food into energy, operate. “It’s like having the coordinates of all the cars in town, but no street map,” Bernard Palsson, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering, and one of the authors of the paper said in a statemnt. “Without this tool, we don’t know why peopel are moving the way they are.”Recon 2 resembles a “Google map” since it consolidates all the details of human metabolism functions into one interactive tool and allows users to zoom in to view as much detail, at a cellular level, as they want, or to zoom out to get a broader perspective of all the different metabolic reactions that might be involved in a particular function. Such analyses can reveal patterns in function that might not otherwise be obvious to scientists working on more limited projects. In a release describing the scope of the project, University of California San Diego officials wrote: This is not unlike how you can get a street view of a single house or zoom out to see how the house fits into the whole neighborhood, city, state, country and globe. And just as Google maps brings together a broad set of data – such as images, addresses, streets and traffic flow – into an easily navigated tool, Recon 2 pulls together a vast compendium of data from published literature and existing models of metabolic processes. Although it is the most expansive map of the human metabolism available, it’s still not complete. According to the researchers, Recon 2 includes only about 1,800 genes of the estimated 20,000 protein-coding genes in the human genome, so there is plenty more to map in coming years.The study was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.Source: time.com Image: [x] Click for high-res version

The Human Body—In ‘Google Map’ Form

An international group of researchers have successfully created the most comprehensive map of the human metabolism, called Recon 2, which details how the body’s converts food into energy, and assembles all of the hormones and proteins that contribute to a normal day’s work for cells and tissues.

Genes may form the foundation of the human condition, but it’s their activity, in the shape of the products they make — from enzymes and hormones to nutrients and signalling factors — that dictate how cells interact with each other, and how body systems, such as the way we breakdown food into energy, operate. “It’s like having the coordinates of all the cars in town, but no street map,” Bernard Palsson, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering, and one of the authors of the paper said in a statemnt. “Without this tool, we don’t know why peopel are moving the way they are.”

Recon 2 resembles a “Google map” since it consolidates all the details of human metabolism functions into one interactive tool and allows users to zoom in to view as much detail, at a cellular level, as they want, or to zoom out to get a broader perspective of all the different metabolic reactions that might be involved in a particular function. Such analyses can reveal patterns in function that might not otherwise be obvious to scientists working on more limited projects. In a release describing the scope of the project, University of California San Diego officials wrote:

This is not unlike how you can get a street view of a single house or zoom out to see how the house fits into the whole neighborhood, city, state, country and globe. And just as Google maps brings together a broad set of data – such as images, addresses, streets and traffic flow – into an easily navigated tool, Recon 2 pulls together a vast compendium of data from published literature and existing models of metabolic processes.


Although it is the most expansive map of the human metabolism available, it’s still not complete. According to the researchers, Recon 2 includes only about 1,800 genes of the estimated 20,000 protein-coding genes in the human genome, so there is plenty more to map in coming years.

The study was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Source: time.com


Image: [x]

∞Posted on March 5, 2013

Source: TIME

Notes: 286 notes

Tags: science,tech,biology,physiology,health,human metabolism,


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