The project titled “Determination of Biomarkers for Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease by Integrated Analysis of Genome-Scale Metabolic Models and Gene Expression Datasets” conducted by Hatice Nur AYDIN, our undergraduate student at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Bioengineering, under the consultancy of Asst. Prof. Dr. Muhammed Erkan KARABEKMEZ was entitled to receive support from TÜBİTAK 2209-A – University Students Research Projects Support Program.
There are over 350,000 Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) patients in Turkey, and HLA-B27, the only biomarker to be used in the early diagnosis of this disease, is not a useful biomarker due to its high false positive rate. Therefore, AYDIN and KARABEKMEZ found that we need effective new biomarkers to detect this disease today.
In the data-intensive age we live in, a huge amount of experimental data belonging to many biological and medical experiments are stored in databases and made available to researchers. The abundance and diversity of data hide even the answers that are in front of our eyes. In this regard, it is vital to analyze these data repeatedly with computational biological studies.
In the project, it was aimed to analyze the genome-scale metabolic models containing more than ten thousand reactions and the expression data of tens of thousands of transcripts in Python and Matlab platforms with different approaches. In this way, active pathways and important enzymes were identified and new biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis were identified, contributing to process innovation. Thus, an important basis was created for future experimental studies.
With this study, it was aimed to support a healthy and quality life in order to contribute to the health system, which is an important element in achieving the sustainability development goals. If the disease is diagnosed early and treatment is started early, it is expected to give results in line with our national interests by increasing the life expectancy of people and reducing the cost of these human medicines. Thus, it was aimed that people benefit from health services, which are their most basic needs, in the most beneficial way.
We congratulate our student and teacher for their significant contribution to good health and well-being and wish them continued success.