Natal van Riel

Natal van Riel is Professor of Biomedical Systems Biology at the department of Biomedical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology, where he leads the Computational Biology group and the Systems Biology and Metabolic Diseases research program. He is also part-time Professor of Computational Modelling at Amsterdam University Medical Centers (location AMC, University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Medicine). His research focuses on modelling of metabolic networks and physiology, machine learning for parameter estimation, methods for analysis of dynamic models, and applications in Metabolic Syndrome and associated diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes.
The role of bile acids in the complex interaction between gut microbiome and metabolic health is currently an important research focus in his group (e.g. in the RESOLVE project in collaboration with Amsterdam UMC). Within the NWO program ‘Complexity in Health and Nutrition’, Natal van Riel also focuses on modelling the digestion and metabolism of nutrients in the project ‘Metabolic adaptation, transitions and resilience in overweight individuals’. In cooperation with the Catharina hospital in Eindhoven he has developed the Metabolic Health Index (MHI) to quantify the benefit of bariatric surgery to resolve metabolic diseases (type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia), which is a second important outcome of the surgical treatment in addition to weight reduction. He develops metabolic 'digital twins' of human individuals to enable predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory medicine. In the DiaGame project digital twins are developed to empower patients with diabetes in self-management of their disease.

In the past decade Systems Biology has become an established methodology for integrative and quantitative life science research. It is our goal to translate Systems Biology to biomedical and medical research and education to understand, cure and prevent diseases.