LINDO API
by Lindo Systems
Optimisation of a Biochemical System
Maximising of the rate of ethanol, glycerol, and carbohydrate productionCarlos M. Gonzáles Alcón of Universidad de La Laguna, along with N.V. Torres, E.O. Eberhard, and F. Rodríguez, authored a paper titled "An Indirect Optimisation Method for Biochemical Systems: Description of Method and Application to the Maximisation of the Rate of Ethanol, Glycerol, and Carbohydrate Production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae".
The use of microorganisms, such as yeast, for the production of useful substances like alcohol and antibiotics is common. One particular model of such processes involves constraints containing products of variables. By taking logarithms, Prof. Alcón converted the model to a linear program and used LINDO to determine appropriate levels for various enzymes. Increased production rates of a factor of 3 were typical. A system was designed whereby Mathematica generated input files for LINDO to obtain the optimum profile of enzyme activities. An attempt to obtain the profile with random mutations and screening would have been very expensive and time consuming.