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Unlike previous work, this method does not require assumption of the flux distribution beforehand.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Using a large <jats:italic>E. coli<\/jats:italic> isotopomer model, different commercially available substrate labeling patterns were tested computationally for their ability to determine reaction fluxes. The choice of optimal labeled substrate was found to be dependent upon the desired experimental objective. Many commercially available labels are predicted to be outperformed by complex labeling patterns. Based on Monte Carlo Sampling, the dimensionality of experimental data was found to be considerably less than anticipated, suggesting that effectiveness of <jats:sup>13<\/jats:sup>C experiments for determining reaction fluxes across a large-scale metabolic network is less than previously believed.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>While <jats:sup>13<\/jats:sup>C analysis is a useful tool in systems biology, high redundancy in measurements limits the information that can be obtained from each experiment. It is however possible to compute potential limitations before an experiment is run and predict whether, and to what degree, the rate of each reaction can be resolved.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/1752-0509-6-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2012,1,31]],"date-time":"2012-01-31T14:44:44Z","timestamp":1328021084000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":25,"title":["Predicting outcomes of steady-state 13C isotope tracing experiments using Monte Carlo sampling"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Jan","family":"Schellenberger","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Daniel C","family":"Zielinski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wing","family":"Choi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sunthosh","family":"Madireddi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Vasiliy","family":"Portnoy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"David A","family":"Scott","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jennifer L","family":"Reed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Andrei L","family":"Osterman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bernhard \u2205","family":"Palsson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2012,1,30]]},"reference":[{"issue":"5930","key":"850_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1029","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1160809","volume":"324","author":"MGV Heiden","year":"2009","unstructured":"Heiden MGV, Cantley LC, Thompson CB: Understanding the Warburg Effect: The Metabolic Requirements of Cell Proliferation. 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