VTT Front Page

Welcome to the Quantitative Biology and Bioinformatics group page. We are an interdisciplinary team bridging the bioinformatics, computational systems biology, and analytical technologies, therefore being an integral part of VTT's Systems Biology platform.

We are investigating

• how are the genetic and environmental factors imprinted in the metabolome;

• the mechanisms by which alterations of metabolome lead to (patho)physiological changes at the systems level;

• discovery and functional characterization of metabolic markers for multiple diseases or responses to interventions and environmental challenges.

We are relying on metabolomics techniques to characterize the metabolome, combined with systems biology strategies to investigate, e.g., how changes in gene expression or in gut microbial composition alter the metabolic phenotypes. Current biomedical interests include metabolic and autoimmune diseases, and cancer.

 

This sort of metabolomic approach to T1D natural history may be a pioneering example of environmental data-driven approaches.

[From commentary by P. Bougnères and A.-J. Valleron on our paper Orešič et al., Dysregulation of lipid and amino acid metabolism precedes islet autoimmunity in children who later progress to type 1 diabetes, J. Exp. Med. 205(13), 2975-2984 (2008).] See also the Faculty of 1000 Biology evaluation of the paper.

Latest news

December 2009	New paper: V. R. Velagapudi et al., The gut microbiota modulates host energy and lipid metabolism in mice, J. Lipid Res. (2009, accepted). doi:10.1194/jlr.M002774
December 2009	New paper: K. Kajander et al., Elevated pro-inflammatory and lipotoxic mucosal lipids characterize irritable bowel syndrome, World J. Gatroenterol. 15, 6068-6074 (2009).
December 2009	New review paper: M. Orešič, Systems biology strategy to study lipotoxicity and the metabolic syndrome, Biochim. Biophys. Acta (2009). doi:10.1016/j.bbalip.2009.11.003