Mini Symposium

Systems biology is an attempt to use computational methods to reconstruct an organism "in silico" - that is, to be able to model macroscopic cellular behaviour, based on known concentrations of metabolites, small molecules, and proteins. It is possible to use comparative genomics to build models of protein interaction networks, which can then be used in reconstruction of cellular processes. Currently, there are about 10 sequenced Salmonella genomes available, along with another two dozen other members of the Proteobacteria, gamma-subdivision enterobacteriales group (also known as "E.coli and friends"). Comparative genomics of these 34 genomes allow us to visualise differences and similarties between Salmonella and other enterobacteriales and also pathogenic species vs. non-pathogenic species. By including experimental data from DNA microarrays, it is possible to begin to reconstruct some of the networks which might be responsible for Salmonella pathogenesis.