Understanding Protozoan Parasite Metabolism and Identifying Drug Targets through Constraint‐Based Modeling

The 21st century has seen a monumental advancement in genome sequencing and high-throughput “omics” techniques. The availability of massive amounts of data and the need to synthesize these data into a coherent form combined with increasing systems-level approaches has led to the development of computational techniques capable of modeling, simulating, and studying the full embodiment of metabolism in whole cells. This chapter provides an introduction to the approach of genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction and flux balance analysis in the study of parasitic metabolism. It also summarizes upon the various tools and databases available for use in this approach. The genome-scale metabolic network is assigned an objective, most often the production of metabolites such as proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates representing the biomass components that are essential for the survival of the organisms. The chapter discusses the application of this approach to parasitology, prospect for enhancing drug target discovery, and the current limitations.