ETHERPATHS consortium consists of a multidisciplinary team involving ten partners from seven different countries: Finland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Russia, Italy and Switzerland. Besides the Institute of the Systems Biology SPb there are VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Barcelona, University of Gothenburg, University of Cambrige, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine Federico II University (Italy), Noray Bioinformatics (Spain), Biomotif AB (Sweden), Advion Biosciences (UK) and Nestlé Research Center (Switzerland) in th consortium. All organizations, which take part in the consortium, gather a considerable expertise in complementary fields: information technology, bioinformatics, metabolic and physiological modeling, systems engineering, biochemistry, microbiology, lipid metabolism, metabolomics, obesity and metabolic syndrome, and clinical nutrition.

In framework of these groups following tasks will be studied:

• Development of metabolic models that enable studies of gut microbial metabolism
• Development of dynamic models of systemic lipid metabolism
• Development of pathway reconstruction methods for studies of tissue-specific effects of dietary interventions.
• Optimization of the models in context of studies of dietary interventions and will be integrated into a sophisticated software platform.

In silico strategies will be complemented by multiple experimental approaches, including:

• Dietary interventions involving n-3 fatty acids and polyphenols, combined with tracer studies, in vitro, in vivo, as well as in clinical setting
• In vitro colon model
• In vivo germ free and and conventional models of altered lipid metabolism, specifically plasmalogen deficiency.