In article <v01510111af1ff6b2a1f0@[192.73.4.125]>, "Paul M. Schlosser"
<schlosser at ciit.org> writes
>>constant. Now I have not been able to keep up with all the work that's
>been coming out in MCA, except via this group, but the default approach
>in MCA has been to consider one or a few pathways in isolation to make
>the problem tractable. For obtaining *specific* results (see my previous
But one reason for looking at simple pathways is/was that before the
advent of BST or MCA people knew hardly anything about how pathways
worked and what they did think they knew has turned out to be either to
simplistic or wrong. Someone told me (I know who but I shall not mention
him/her because he/her just in case I get the story wrong) an
interesting true story. They were on a train going to a conference on
metabolism and they began talking to one of the passengers who happened
to be participant. Anyway one of the crazy ideas that one of these
biochemists had was that there couldn't be any product inhibition in
metabolism (the killer of rate-limiting steps) because as soon as a
product is produced by a step it is 'swept' away by the next enzyme
before it has time to inhibit. They had no conception of steady state.
Without theory we're completely in the dark, it gives use a reasoning
tool, much more powerful than simulation. Now you've got to start
somewhere, so we begin with simple pathways, understand them then move
on to more complex ones. And don't stop at steady state, once you've
done steady state, move on to understanding temproral and spatial
phenomena. Simple pathways are not the end of the story, just the
beginning. For me one of the most crucial aspects of BST or MCA is that
is helps me understand, isn't that what we do science for?
I see your "specific" results (engineering?) argument, although I'm not
an engineer I think their agenda is different, *no less important* of
course, but I think different questions and aims are on the table and is
probably why we're having this argument.
>Just tootin' my own horn today, I guess.
Toot away, it makes life more interesting!
>>-Paul
>
By the way Paul, I'd know you had worked for Feinberg, I have great
respect for his work and related work in the chemical engineering field.
regards
Herbert
--
Herbert M Sauro
email: HSauro at fssc.demon.co.uk
Telephone: 01974 282428
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