My current research is focused on Methanosarcina acetivorans, a marine methanogen responsible for diproportionating acetate to methane and carbon dioxide, two potent greenhouse gases. I am creating a genome-scale metabolic model for the methanogenic pathway of M. acetivorans with various constraints, including Michaelis-Menten kinetics and thermodynamics (reaction favorability) . By rigorously constraining my model, I hope to be able to give it more robust predictive power about the chemical pathways involved in methanogenesis. I am specifically looking at reaction rates and metabolite concentrations in an effort to be able to predict the rate of methane production at various concentrations of environmental acetate. Please see my articles page for more background information on my project.