# Metabolism Project

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · 2020 · $512,012

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: METABOLISM PROJECT
 The Metabolism Project will provide the experimental infrastructure (enzymology, microbiology,
transcriptomics, and metabolomics) for testing the EFI's sequence/structure-based tools for predicting in vitro
enzymatic activities and in vivo metabolic functions. In using those tools, the Metabolism Project will take the
lead in developing integrated strategies for discovering novel metabolic pathways and providing direction for
enhancing the tools. The Specific Aims of the Metabolism Project are: 1) coordinate selection of targets for
protein production by the Protein Core, protein purification and ligand screening by the Ligand Discovery
Project, and integrative pathway mapping by the Modeling Project; 2) measure in vitro enzymatic activities of
targets produced by the Protein Core to validate predictions from integrative pathway mapping by the Modeling
Project; 3) construct null (knockout) strains of genes encoding enzymes for which in vitro activities are
predicted by the Modeling Project; 4) perform targeted transcript analyses by qRT-PCR and, when appropriate,
genome-wide transcriptomics by RNA-Seq to confirm predicted metabolic functions predicting by the Modeling
Project; 5) analyze metabolites (metabolomics) predicted by the Modeling Project in wild type and
knockout/overexpression strains under conditions in which phenotypes are observed, with the in vitro assigned
activity facilitating both chromatographic fractionation of total metabolites and subsequent mass spectroscopic
analysis; and 6) transfer in vitro enzymatic activities and in vivo metabolic functions to UniProt to
update/correct the annotations for the individual binding proteins and enzymes in the metabolic pathways that
are predicted and verified.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9918941
- **Project number:** 5P01GM118303-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
- **Principal Investigator:** JOHN A GERLT
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $512,012
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9918941

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9918941, Metabolism Project (5P01GM118303-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9918941. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*