120 participants from 25 countries have attended the Metabolic Pathway Analysis 2019 conference in Riga, Latvia on 12 – 16 August. The conference was organized by the Computational Systems Biology Group, Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology of the University of Latvia, and took place in the Academic centre of the University of Latvia.

The Metabolic Pathway Analysis 2019 (MPA 2019) focused on the structural analysis of metabolic networks, pathways of primary and secondary metabolism, synthetic biology, mathematical algorithms and software with an emphasis on applications in systems medicine. The conference consisted of 6 sessions, 6 hands-on tutorials, 10 invited talks, 38 selected talks and 48 poster presentations. The broad range of topics covered the fields of medicine, ecology, biotechnology, synthetic biology that were discussed at different levels of detail (see Abstract Book here).

The opening talk was given by Harald H.H.W. Schmidt with the provoking title “The end of medicine as we know it”. One of the invited talks was given by the pioneer of enzyme kinetics research and metabolic control analysis Athel Cornish-Bowden on the modern theories of life and potential role of feedback. Meanwhile, in the tutorials, attendees trained on various software products and modelling approaches. Participants of the conference expressed their gratitude about the well organised conference as well as the attractiveness of Riga and Latvia. The Academic centre was recognised as a very convenient, visually and technically advanced place for conferences.

The organizers appreciate contribution of all participants to the MPA 2019 and look forward to the next MPA conference.

Analysis of metabolic pathways is one of the oldest and most advanced branches of systems biology. Fast development of systems biology approach started around 1990. In 2005, the first Metabolic Pathway Analysis conference took place in Jena, Germany and was organized by Stefan Schuster, professor of Friedrich-Schiller University Jena. Metabolic Pathway Analysis is a series of international meetings held bi-annually and dedicated to the analysis of metabolism, primarily by mathematical and computational modelling. For the first time, the MPA conference was held in Northern Europe. The previous MPA conferences were held in Jena, Germany (2005), Leiden, Netherlands (2009), Chester, UK (2011), Oxford, UK (2013), Braga, Portugal (2015), Montana, USA (2017).

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