Making a first step in computationnal system biology as BSc wetlab bioengineering student
Hello,
I'm a 4rd year BSc bioengineering student (it's not exactly true since BSc doesn't exists in my country, but that's the best equivalent I can give) and I work on an academic project in which I'll have to optimize the culture of one or multiples cells.
Despite my formal education is relative to wetlab/synbio mainly, I have a personnal interest in computationnal system biology/metabolic engineering and its applications in synthetic biology. I heard that FBA analysis is sometimes efficient to identify the best way to culture or engineer some cells and I was wondering if I couldn't use it for my projects. It seems like a standard PC is powerful enough to run a FBA analysis and the maths behind feel accessible. The organisms I'll work on are not very exotic (P. Pastoris or chlorella maybe, they be engineered or not) and I thought to find reliable SBML models online. This leads me to wonder if I couldn't make a first step in system biology by using FBA (and/or bioinfo analysis) to engineer my cells or culture conditions. Maybe I could reproduice a paper but with my organisms of interest
In addition to my academic project, I'll soon held an internship in which I'll have to optimize some yeasts culture conditions
What I was wondering is how long would it takes to master and apply FBA, which softwares to use and if there were online pipelines/tuto awailable online. How long would it takes to implement a FBA ? What difficulties should I be prepared for? I don't really know if SBML models are reliable either and how to check their completeness. (Am I hopeless ?)
I had some courses on linear algebra, algorithms, python and MATLAB, among others, but I'm afraid of my lack of practical experience. I have read diverse things related to system biology like A First course in System Biology or papers but I guess it's more general knowledge.
Any information/remark is welcome.