David Fell (biochemist)

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David Fell
Born (1947-12-16) 16 December 1947 (age 76)
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Known formetabolic control analysis, elementary modes, flux balance analysis
Scientific career
Fieldssystems biology, network biology, genetics
InstitutionsOxford Brookes University
Thesis (1974)
Doctoral advisorArthur Peacocke
Doctoral studentsHerbert M. Sauro

David A. Fell is a British biochemist and professor of systems biology at Oxford Brookes University.[1] He has published over 200 publications,[2] including a textbook on Understanding the control of metabolism[3] in 1996.

Early work[edit]

Fell did research on the physical biochemistry of yeast pyruvate kinase.[4] He obtained a position at Oxford Polytechnic as a lecturer.[1] His early work at Oxford Polytechnic focussed on haemoglobin where he developed more precise techniques for monitoring oxygen saturation[5] and the breakdown of 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate by Fe(III)-haemoglobin.[6] At this time he also worked on the first modelling studies related to the functioning of high- and low-Km cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases on the regulation of adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP)[7]

Later career[edit]

From the early 1980s David Fell switched his research to systems biology and was one of the earliest systems biologists in the UK, with publications from 1979[8] onwards. The other notable systems biologist at time was Henrik Kacser at the University of Edinburgh. Given that his early work had a significant mathematical and computational component, he was ideally positioned to consider a more quantitative approach to studying the properties of cellular networks. It was against this background that he turned to the relatively new field called metabolic control analysis as a means to understand the principles of metabolic regulation. Before the development of metabolic control analysis, understanding metabolism was based on qualitative arguments which resulted in some incorrect conclusions (rate-limiting steps). Much of Fell's research for the next 20 years focussed on extending and applying metabolic control analysis to metabolism. This work culminated in the publication of his textbook, Understanding the control of metabolism.[3] In 1986 he published with his graduate student Rankin Small, one of the earliest flux-balance models where they used linear programming to examine the efficiency in the conversion of glucose into fat.[9] He was also one of the first researchers to use the Gillespie method for stochastic simulation in cellular biology,[10] a method that is now routinely used in systems biology. In the late 1990s his research started shifting more towards stoichiometric analysis with particular emphasis on elementary modes[11] and the analysis of larger networks such as those involved in photosynthesis[12] and whole genome scale models in a variety of organisms including one of the first genome scale models of Arabidopsis.[13]

Publications[edit]

Other than his textbook, which has been cited 1464 times (Sept, 2018), his top ten publications include:[14] two publications related to the evolutionary age of metabolism using small-world analysis, the definition of a pathway in terms of elementary modes, three reviews on metabolic control analysis including a republication[15] of the seminal work, Control of Flux by Kacser and Burns,[16] two research papers on metabolic control analysis, one of the earliest papers on the use of flux-balance analysis, one of the earliest papers that describes a model the MAPK pathway in EGF signalling, and well as the earliest paper that describes the whole genome-scale model of the plant Arabidopsis.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Professor David Fell - Professor of Systems Biology". Oxford Brookes University.
  2. ^ "David Fell - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.no. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b Fell, David (1997). Understanding the control of metabolism. Portland Press. ISBN 9781855780477. OCLC 553392040.
  4. ^ Fell, David A.; Liddle, Peter F.; Peacocke, Arthur R.; Dwek, Raymond A. (1974). "The preparation and properties of pyruvate kinase from yeast". Biochemical Journal. 139 (3): 665–675. doi:10.1042/bj1390665. ISSN 0264-6021. PMC 1166331. PMID 4369339.
  5. ^ Fell, David (1978). "An automated mixing apparatus for determining haemoglobin-oxygen dissociation". The Journal of Physiology. 2823: 3P–4P. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1978.sp012483. PMID 31462. S2CID 222217462.
  6. ^ El-Yassin, D I; Fell, D A; Lloyd, B B; Fisher, R B (1979). "The breakdown of 2,3-bis(phospho)-D-glycerate by Fe(III)-haemoglobin". Biochemical Journal. 177 (1): 373–375. doi:10.1042/bj1770373. ISSN 0264-6021. PMC 1186379. PMID 426777.
  7. ^ Fell, David A. (1980). "Theoretical analyses of the functioning of the high- and low-Km cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases in the regulation of the concentration of adenosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate in animal cells". Journal of Theoretical Biology. 84 (2): 361–385. doi:10.1016/s0022-5193(80)80011-7. ISSN 0022-5193. PMID 6251314.
  8. ^ Fell, D A; Sauro, H M (1986). "Metabolic control and its analysis: additional relationships between elasticities and control coefficients". European Journal of Biochemistry. 148 (3): 555–5616. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1985.tb08876.x. ISSN 0014-2956. PMID 3996393.
  9. ^ Fell, D A; Small, J R (1986). "Fat synthesis in adipose tissue. An examination of stoichiometric constraints". Biochemical Journal. 238 (3): 781–786. doi:10.1042/bj2380781. ISSN 0264-6021. PMC 1147204. PMID 3800960.
  10. ^ Moniz-Barreto, P.; Fell, D. A. (1996), "Simulation of Dioxygen Free Radical Reactions: Their Importance in the Initiation of Lipid Peroxidation", Biomedical and Life Physics, Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, pp. 137–144, doi:10.1007/978-3-322-85017-1_12, ISBN 9783322850195
  11. ^ Schuster, S.; Hilgetag, C.; Schuster, R. (1996), "Determining Elementary Modes of Functioning in Biochemical Reaction Networks at Steady State", Biomedical and Life Physics, Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, pp. 101–114, doi:10.1007/978-3-322-85017-1_9, ISBN 9783322850195
  12. ^ Poolman, Mark G.; Fell, David A.; Raines, Christine A. (2003). "Elementary modes analysis of photosynthate metabolism in the chloroplast stroma". European Journal of Biochemistry. 270 (3): 430–439. doi:10.1046/j.1432-1033.2003.03390.x. ISSN 0014-2956. PMID 12542693.
  13. ^ Poolman, M. G.; Miguet, L.; Sweetlove, L. J.; Fell, D. A. (2009). "A Genome-Scale Metabolic Model of Arabidopsis and Some of Its Properties". Plant Physiology. 151 (3): 1570–1581. doi:10.1104/pp.109.141267. ISSN 0032-0889. PMC 2773075. PMID 19755544.
  14. ^ "David Fell - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.no. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  15. ^ Kacser, H; Burns, JA; Fell, DA (1995). "The control of flux". Biochemical Society Transactions. 23 (2): 341–366. doi:10.1042/bst0230341. PMID 7672373.
  16. ^ Kacser, H; Burns, J A (1973). "The control of flux". Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology. 27: 65–104.

External links[edit]

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