Süsteemibioloogia laboratoorium tegutseb biofüüsika ning bioenergeetika vallas, keskendudes südamerakus toimuvate protsesside uurimisele. Kasutades nii eksperimentaaltööd kui matemaatilist modelleerimist uuritakse rakusisest kompartmentatsiooni ning difusioonitakistusi ning nende mõju rakuenergeetikale; mitokondrite funktsionaalse struktuuri mõju rakuhingamisele; energia ülekande mehhanisme rakkudes ning südameraku mehaanika ning energeetika omavaheline seost.Uurimisrühma väljundiks on ka vabatarkvara arendamine rühmas väljatöötatud analüüsitehnikatele nagu näiteks bioloogiliste protsesside kineetika katseandme sisestus- ja töötlusplatform, dekonvolutsioon konfokaal mikroskoopia piltide parendamiseks, sarkomeeri pikkuse reaalajas määramise algoritm.
In the Laboratory of Systems Biology, we useinterdisciplinary approaches to tackle questions in cardiac physiology. Our team consistsof researchers with backgrounds in biophysics,biology, and applied mathematics/physics. As aresult, we are able to approach scientific questions on different scales, from organ to molecularlevel, using combinations of different experimental and theoretical techniques by focusing onquantitative analysis of the data.We study diffusion in cardiomyocytes by tracking the movement of fluorescent molecules usingextended raster image correlation spectroscopy.Our results suggest that diffusion barriers are arranged in a 3D lattice with relatively smallopenings. Based on the analysis of autofluorescence response, we demonstrated that mitochondrial outer membrane and cytosolic diffusionbarriers reduce the movement of molecules toa similar extent. We study effects of creatinedeficiency to establish the role of creatine kinaseshuttle in the heart. In the research papers published this year, we demonstrated how creatinedeficiency leads to intracellular adaptations interms of alternative energy transfer systemschanges and an impact on calcium handlingof cardiomyocytes. These studies form a basisfor our current line of research on interactionsbetween processes in cardiomyocytes.