QTB Team Details

Mathematical modelling of glycogen metabolism and glycogen-related disorders

Metabolic diseases, that affect both energy storage and consumption, are a burden on the European population and health care system. The PoLiMeR project focuses on rare metabolic diseases and the regulation of polymers in the liver: fatty acids and glycogen.

Glycogen serves as energy storage in animals, fungi and bacteria. In humans, It is mostly found in the liver and muscles. When energy is needed, the glycogen stored in the liver can be broken down into glucose units and circulate through the blood to fuel other organs. The glycogen molecule is made of around 10⁴ glucose units linked together through α-1,4 bonds and α-1,6 bonds. The resulting structure consists in glucose chains which are regularly branched, which makes the glycogen a spherical highly ordered polymer. The understanding of the structural pattern of glycogen is crucial. The amount of glucose available for degradation and therefore the associated metabolism, is directly depending on the structural properties of glycogen such as branching degree and average chain length. Despite a relatively small number of enzymes involved in glycogen biogenesis and degradation, the detailed mechanistic and kinetics aspects, are still unclear.

I am developing mathematical and numerical modeling approaches to study the overall dynamics of glycogen formation and degradation. One major aim is to analyze the effects of different enzymes concentrations on the structures. The model will allow to reproduce metabolic disorders related to glycogen metabolism and develop intervention strategies how to counteract glycogen-related metabolic disorders by drug applications.

Financed by the Marie-Curie Innovative Training Network PoLiMeR: Polymers in the Liver, Metabolism and Regulation