Osipova lab

Metabolic Evolution and Design Laboratory

We study the evolution of metabolism in animals and use these insights to engineer novel metabolic systems that push the limits of nature.

Metabolism is a universal property of all living systems. Yet, most studies of metabolism focus on just a few model organisms, such as humans and mice. This model-organism-centric perspective on metabolism limits our understanding of the full potential of metabolic systems. In the end, it poses a huge barrier to addressing human metabolic challenges and to developing tools for manipulating metabolism in biomedical and research applications.

One of the ways we can best understand those limits is by studying the animal world. Animals demonstrate an enormous metabolic diversity, often solving metabolic problems in ways that seem impossible for humans. Our goals are to 1) investigate how animals evolve this enormous metabolic diversity and 2) apply this knowledge to design cells, tissues, and whole organisms with programmable metabolisms that exceed even the limits found in the natural world. Our approach integrates comparative genomics, artificial intelligence, and synthetic biology, supported by collaborations with field scientists.

The ultimate goal of this research is not just to shift our human-centric perspective on metabolism or to encourage the development of new metabolic tools in synthetic biology. It’s also to change how synthetic biology is done by showcasing how evolutionary insights can guide the rational design of novel biological systems. Metabolism is only the beginning.