Nonlinear Phenomena in Metabolic Systems

Nonlinear phenomena in chemical reaction engineering are generally associated with nonlinearity of reaction kinetics either with or without interaction with other physical processes (such as transport). Metabolic processes, on the other hand, are endowed with (nonlinear) regulatory mechanisms that manipulate the very reactions occurring when subjected to a specific growth rate. We discuss a modeling framework, together with its recent accomplishments, that can be used to study what we believe to be a rich collection of new nonlinear phenomena that remain to be explored.