Prof. Dr. Rudi Balling

Many neurodegenerative diseases are linked to perturbations in energy metabolism. Glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway and the TCA-cycle, coupled to the mitochondrial electron transport chain, are the core metabolic pathways, providing not only ATP and energy equivalents, such as NADH/NADPH, but also important precursors and substrates for biosynthetic reactions, including neurotransmitters. Whereas by now most of the components are well known, their precise regulation in the context of temporally and spatially changing needs are less understood. We are interested in the regulatory relationship between the TCA-cycle and coupled metabolic and signalling pathways. A particular interest is on the development of computational models for the process of anaplerosis, the filling up of the TCA-cycle, e.g. by intermediate metabolites or amino acids, such as glutamate, glutamine or GABA. Our goal is to use these models to obtain insight into metabolic pathways that might be perturbed in neurodegenerative diseases and could be used for preventive or therapeutic interventions.