Understanding cellular metabolism by applying economic theory

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has applied a born and used theory for economic systems to cell metabolism for the first time.

The mechanisms that regulate cell metabolisms are based on a delicate balance of incoming and outgoing information and molecules flows across the cell membrane and between different organelles within the cell. Every living cell has to constantly solve a problem of the allocation of resources where incoming and outgoing secretory flows are the result of biochemical reactions and regulatory mechanisms put in place by metabolic enzymes.

Quantifying the efficiency with which a population of cells solves the problem of allocating resources is a fundamental question for the "cell economy" and thus draws quite explicitly to the typical dynamics of business management.

The research, published in IEEE Life Sciences Letters, suggests the use of data envelopment analyses, a technique used to measure the performance of production units introduced in 1978 by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes, which allows the evaluation of the efficiency of a decision making unit, namely of a production unit.

Raffaele Pesenti, Professor of Research Operations from the Department of Management, is among the authors of the research, together with Lorenzo Castelli from the University of Trieste and Daniel Segrè of Boston University.

The data envelopment analyses, previously used to evaluate the efficiency of economic systems such as banks, hospitals and transport systems, is in this study applied to a context of productivity and cell efficiency where each decision making unit, in this case cell population, is compared with the most efficient production units by assessing the relative efficiency.

This thus allows to simultaneously manage incoming input (for example the absorption of different sources of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur) and output (biomass production and the secretion of waste products) comparing the performance of different organisms. Applying this methodology, it is possible to distinguish the efficient cell populations from the inefficient populations.

The research borrows some foundations from business and research on organizations to examine the possible advantages arising from considering the cells and their metabolism as productive units that use resources to produce results.

 Man studies evolution applying game theory that he invented himself and exploits the laws of nature to understand the dynamics of interaction between communities in a circle where, as Gilbert Keith Chesterton English writer and intellectual of the first half the '900s said"... he is himself the animal which he studies".

Professor Pesenti, can we consider cells as managers?

 "The economic models are always applied with caution to systems not managed by humans. In fact, we should always be very careful not to give the actors involved, whether they be animals, plants or machinery, excessive human characteristics. In our case, for example, it is true that the evolutionary pressure pushes cells to relatively efficiently manage the resources available to them, but it is not true that the cells exhibit any desire in this direction. "

Mathematics, biology and economic theories. How do you find this interdisciplinary experience?

"Interdisciplinary collaboration is always very interesting and fruitful. But you have to overcome two difficulties: the first is to find a common language to understand each other, and in this sense mathematics helps a lot. The second is linked to how to validate the research in Italy. In fact, now both the system for evaluation of the research departments and the criteria enabling young people tend to reward those who carry out research within their sector rather than those looking for contacts and exchanges with other disciplines as well."

This is also why this year Ca’ Foscari launched Research for Global Challenges, a project involving all eight of its departments thanks to interdisciplinary team work of researchers who perform cutting-edge research to meet global challenges of both the present and the future.