Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) have become a popular tool for systems biology, and they have been used in many fields such as industrial biotechnology and systems medicine. Since more and more studies are being conducted using GEMs, they have recently received considerable attention. In this review, we introduce the basic concept of GEMs and provide an overview of their applications in biotechnology, systems medicine, and some other fields. In addition, we describe the general principle of the applications and analyses built on GEMs. The purpose of this review is to introduce the application of GEMs in biological analysis and to promote its wider use by biologists.
Keywords: genome-scale metabolic models; in silico metabolic engineering; metabolic capability analysis; systems biology; systems medicine.