Metabolism models are one of the best tools currently available for predicting single microbe characteristics such as growth rate, yield, efficiency of yield, and the kind of raw materials it will convert. In my research, I combine metabolic modelling with evolutionary theory to extend these models to communities of micro-organisms – aiming to understand how they assemble and give rise to potentially useful functionalities.
I want to connect evolution with ecology – how do microbial communities assemble, and how does the community context influence evolution?
Djordje Bajić
Within the context of the Zero Emission Biotechnology research programme, my group will first focus on understanding the metabolism of the microbial communities of my colleague Ludovic Jourdin that can convert CO2 into useful end products using green electricity only. We aim to develop a computational model for predicting the intermediate reaction products that are being exchanged in this community of micro-organisms. This will allow us to develop engineering strategies to obtain ethanol and various other end products, saving us a lot of expensive and time-consuming experiments.
Djordje Bajić, Assistant Professor
Expertise:
Computational biology