The AlmaasLab’s research is within the field of Systems Biology, where the focus is on understanding the function of systems of biological components. This is a challenging task, since their sum is more than just a listing of the parts. Consequently, the nature of the interactions and the webs that they generate are quite important.  In projects where network analysis is not obviously applied, we let network thinking inspire our approaches.  Our group is conducting computational and theoretical analyses that go hand in hand with our experimental investigations. Follow us on Twitter for updates.
The research in our group is mostly divided into three main research topics:
  • Analysis and modeling of complex networks.
    While much of our activity is in biological networks, we are interested in a wide range of networks, from social to technological ones. This also includes disease spreading on contact networks. We analyze and develop methods for investigating properties of these networks.
    [Read more here …]
  • Genome-scale metabolic modeling and experimental studies.
    Computational modeling of whole-cell or whole tissue metabolism has recently become a reality. We develop algorithms for the analysis of such models and also build genome-scale metabolic networks from the ground for a variety of organisms. These models need a variety of experimental inputs for calibration and improving their predictive abilities. We conduct our own experiments to determine growth properties and biomass composition.
    [Read more here …]
  • Epidemiological spread on complex networks.
    The spread of diseases or disease agents has radically changed human society multiple times throughout history. We use complex network theory to study the interplay between diseases and the structure of human contact network. In particular, we have studied both the spread of antibacterial resistance and COVID-19 in care facilities, and the spread of multi-resistant STI’s in Norway. We are also part of the NTNU COVID-19 Task Force, where we generate and apply an high-resolution individual-based modeling framework (IBM), and conduct virus testing of waste water. [Read more here …]
  • Bacteriophage-bacteria experimental evolution.
    The rapid rise of microbes with resistance against single or multiple antibiotics is a major challenge to modern medicine. Phages, virus that uniquely target bacteria,  provide an alternative approach for treating bacterial infections. We conduct experiments to study evolutionary processes in designer systems with specific phage – bacteria interactions.
    [Read more here …]
  • Systems Brewology.
    We study the complex interactions between yeast(s) and nutrients in beer brewing through the use of genome-scale modeling, machine-learning, and a wide variety of experimental analyses.
    [Read more here …]

Participation in research grants: