Multi-scale Metabolic Modeling and Simulation

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Carstensen, Peter E., Groves, Teddy, Nielsen, Lars K., Krühne, Ulrich, Gernaey, Krist V., Jørgensen, John B.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914426666352640
author Carstensen, Peter E.
Groves, Teddy
Nielsen, Lars K.
Krühne, Ulrich
Gernaey, Krist V.
Jørgensen, John B.
author_facet Carstensen, Peter E.
Groves, Teddy
Nielsen, Lars K.
Krühne, Ulrich
Gernaey, Krist V.
Jørgensen, John B.
contents Biological systems are governed by coupled interactions between intracellular metabolism and bioreactor operation that span multiple time scales. Constraint-based metabolic models are widely used to describe intracellular metabolism, but repeatedly solving the optimization problem at each time step in dynamic models introduces numerical challenges related to infeasibility and computational efficiency. This work presents a multi-scale modeling framework that integrates genome-scale, constraint-based metabolic models with dynamic bioreactor simulations. Intracellular metabolism is described using positive flux variables in a parsimonious flux balance analysis, and the resulting embedded optimization problem is replaced by a neural network surrogate. The surrogate provides a smooth approximation of the embedded optimization mapping and eliminates repeated linear program solves during simulation. The approach is demonstrated for fed-batch fermentation of Escherichia coli, in which the surrogate model yields intracellular fluxes under substrate-limited conditions, whereas the underlying linear program would otherwise be infeasible. The framework provides a continuous representation of intracellular metabolism suitable for dynamic simulation of genome-scale models in bioreactor configurations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_26370
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multi-scale Metabolic Modeling and Simulation
Carstensen, Peter E.
Groves, Teddy
Nielsen, Lars K.
Krühne, Ulrich
Gernaey, Krist V.
Jørgensen, John B.
Quantitative Methods
Dynamical Systems
Optimization and Control
Biological systems are governed by coupled interactions between intracellular metabolism and bioreactor operation that span multiple time scales. Constraint-based metabolic models are widely used to describe intracellular metabolism, but repeatedly solving the optimization problem at each time step in dynamic models introduces numerical challenges related to infeasibility and computational efficiency. This work presents a multi-scale modeling framework that integrates genome-scale, constraint-based metabolic models with dynamic bioreactor simulations. Intracellular metabolism is described using positive flux variables in a parsimonious flux balance analysis, and the resulting embedded optimization problem is replaced by a neural network surrogate. The surrogate provides a smooth approximation of the embedded optimization mapping and eliminates repeated linear program solves during simulation. The approach is demonstrated for fed-batch fermentation of Escherichia coli, in which the surrogate model yields intracellular fluxes under substrate-limited conditions, whereas the underlying linear program would otherwise be infeasible. The framework provides a continuous representation of intracellular metabolism suitable for dynamic simulation of genome-scale models in bioreactor configurations.
title Multi-scale Metabolic Modeling and Simulation
topic Quantitative Methods
Dynamical Systems
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.26370