Gated Metabolite Awareness: A Systems Biology Model of Intracellular Information Processing

We propose a systems biology model in which intracellular intelligence emerges from the gated diffusion of metabolites across compartmental membranes. In contrast to classical top-down signaling paradigms, our model frames the cell as a distributed computational network. Metabolite concentrations - such as glucose, NAD⁺, ATP, and pyruvate - act as real-time information carriers, while organelles process this information based on selective access granted by transporters. These channels function as logic gates, dynamically modulating biochemical input based on thermodynamics, kinetics, and regulatory signals. We formalize this concept using Michaelis-Menten and Boltzmann-based gating logic to illustrate how metabolism encodes computation. This framework has implications for understanding cellular resilience, disease vulnerability, and therapeutic targeting in metabolic disorders such as autism and diabetes.