Researchers Create A 'Google Map' Of The Human Metabolism
Mapping Human Metabolism Recon XNever get lost in your own metabolic processes again! An international team of researchers has debuted what they're calling a "Google map" of the human metabolism -- the most expansive virtual model of human metabolism to date, called Recon 2. Metabolism, the blanket term for all the physical and chemical processes that your body employs to convert food into energy, plays an important role in health and disease. More comprehensive biological modeling of our metabolism can help us compute and predict how our bodies will respond to drugs, in addition to expanding our knowledge of the connection between our body's chemical interactions and a variety of diseases. Multiple models of the human metabolism exist, but Recon 2 is so far the most comprehensive. While the human metabolic network isn't actually Google Maps' latest attempt at virtual tourism (color me disappointed), the comparison comes from Recon 2's...