The outcomes of the Systems Biology approach are development of predictive models of cellular behaviour and new insight into biological properties. It is believed that Systems Biology will have a major impact on how modern biological and biotechnological research is carried out, from development of microbial industrial bioprocesses to personalized medicine.

Department of Biotechnology, NTNU together with SINTEF Biotechnology has taken an initiative to establish Microbial Systems Biology in Trondheim. The basis for the initiative has been the study of two microbial systems, alginate production in Pseudomonas fluorescens and antibiotic production in Streptomyces spp. The NTNU-SINTEF partnership has over 15 years of experience in the molecular biology to bioprocess optimization of the two microbial systems.

In 2007 Department of Biotechnology will establish a permenant position in Systems Biology with research focus on data analysis and data integration that will complement existing competence in molecular biology, fermentation and analysis. This position is a part of a joint recruitment and establishment of Systems Biology research and education at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, NTNU since two other positions in Systems Biology are currently under establishment at Department of Biology and Department of Chemical Engineering.

Current and future research activities in Systems Biology

Department of Biotechnology and SINTEF Biotechnology have been successful and has been granted two projects in collaboration with european partners in the ERA-net research initiative SysMO (Systems Biology of Microorganisms) . The projects will start 1. March in 2007 and NTNU is in the process of recruiting personell at the post doc level.

The two SysMO project with a partner from Trondheim is: