Project Objectives

• To develop a computational framework that integrates, as an interaction network, the already available, and the newly generated or predicted data on all components (gene expression, proteins or metabolites) of the Insulin signalling pathway and the Mitochondrial processes, and the relationships within and between both systems. This framework will mainly consist in a complex network that will be designed focusing on several important features, from which we want to emphasize: [1] the possibility of handling different types and levels of relationships (links) that connect components within and between both systems (from direct protein-protein interaction to common cellular location); and [2] the possibility of querying the network for potential changes at all levels when specific components or links are deliberately perturbed.

• To enrich the quality of the computational framework by generating information related to specific perturbations known to selectively modify insulin signalling and/or mitochondria function.

• To determine the predictability of the computational framework by validating specific hypothesis emerging from the developing model to be tested using appropriate in vitro and in vivo model.

• To evaluate the translatability of the new knowledge to human diabetes or related diseases.