diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 439c56358e79e7c2eae3e246bf80341d27808efc..47457510176461e09f3d76db4d9d89153b8e1eb8 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ OrderedCollections = "bac558e1-5e72-5ebc-8fee-abe8a469f55d"
Pkg = "44cfe95a-1eb2-52ea-b672-e2afdf69b78f"
Random = "9a3f8284-a2c9-5f02-9a11-845980a1fd5c"
SBML = "e5567a89-2604-4b09-9718-f5f78e97c3bb"
+Serialization = "9e88b42a-f829-5b0c-bbe9-9e923198166b"
SparseArrays = "2f01184e-e22b-5df5-ae63-d93ebab69eaf"
Statistics = "10745b16-79ce-11e8-11f9-7d13ad32a3b2"
diff --git a/src/COBREXA.jl b/src/COBREXA.jl
index e32108f69bce7eab9f93bcc4111c21a25656bde9..02d410c3c2a83410507e4bd88eb7b06d44a1cb92 100644
--- a/src/COBREXA.jl
+++ b/src/COBREXA.jl
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ using MAT
using MacroTools
using OrderedCollections
using Random
+using Serialization
using SparseArrays
using Statistics
diff --git a/src/base/types/Serialized.jl b/src/base/types/Serialized.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..8924ba08a26452e107445007e4f6325be585ca70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/base/types/Serialized.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+
+"""
+ mutable struct Serialized{M <: MetabolicModel}
+ m::Maybe{M}
+ filename::String
+ end
+
+A meta-model that represents a model that is serialized on the disk. The
+internal model will be loaded on-demand by using any accessor, or by calling
+[`precache!`](@ref) directly.
+"""
+mutable struct Serialized{M} <: MetabolicModel where {M<:MetabolicModel}
+ m::Maybe{M}
+ filename::String
+end
+
+function _on_precached(m::Serialized, f)
+ precache!(m)
+ f(m.m)
+end
+
+reactions(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, reactions)
+n_reactions(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, n_reactions)
+metabolites(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, metabolites)
+n_metabolites(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, n_metabolites)
+stoichiometry(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, stoichiometry)
+bounds(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, bounds)
+balance(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, balance)
+objective(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, objective)
+coupling(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, coupling)
+n_coupling_constraints(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, n_coupling_constraints)
+coupling_bounds(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, coupling_bounds)
+genes(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, genes)
+n_genes(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, n_genes)
+metabolite_formula(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, metabolite_formula)
+metabolite_charge(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, metabolite_charge)
+reaction_annotations(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, reaction_annotations)
+metabolite_annotations(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, metabolite_annotations)
+gene_annotations(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, gene_annotations)
+reaction_nodes(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, reaction_nodes)
+metabolite_nodes(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, metabolite_nodes)
+gene_notes(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, gene_notes)
+metabolite_compartment(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, metabolite_compartment)
+reaction_subsystem(m::Serialized) = _on_precached(m, reaction_subsystem)
+
+"""
+ precache!(model::Serialized{MetabolicModel})::Nothing
+
+Load the `Serialized` model from disk in case it's not alreadly loaded.
+"""
+function precache!(model::Serialized)::Nothing
+ if isnothing(model.m)
+ model.m = deserialize(model.filename)
+ end
+ nothing
+end
diff --git a/src/base/types/abstract/MetabolicModel.jl b/src/base/types/abstract/MetabolicModel.jl
index 4311ff800c11d9e37d20d798aba1c3edfa53a0b0..163615c4cdbb42ca310b443445ec4a813edd1ffc 100644
--- a/src/base/types/abstract/MetabolicModel.jl
+++ b/src/base/types/abstract/MetabolicModel.jl
@@ -305,3 +305,21 @@ return `nothing`.
function reaction_subsystem(model::MetabolicModel, reaction_id::String)::Maybe{String}
return nothing
end
+
+"""
+ precache!(a::MetabolicModel)::Nothing
+
+Do whatever is feasible to get the model into a state that can be read from
+as-quickly-as-possible. This may include e.g. generating helper index
+structures and loading delayed parts of the model from disk. The model should
+be modified "transparently" in-place. Analysis functions call this right before
+applying modifications or converting the model to the optimization model using
+[`make_optimization_model`](@ref); usually on the same machine where the
+optimizers (and, generally, the core analysis algorithms) will run. The calls
+are done in a good hope that the performance will be improved.
+
+By default, it should be safe to do nothing.
+"""
+function precache!(a::MetabolicModel)::Nothing
+ nothing
+end
diff --git a/src/base/utils/Serialized.jl b/src/base/utils/Serialized.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..741e128aef769a3b3e60fb8f0e9dd08b9050c4ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/base/utils/Serialized.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+
+"""
+ serialize_model(model::MM, filename::String)::Serialized{MM} where {MM<:MetabolicModel}
+
+Serialize the `model` to file `filename`, returning a [`Serialized`](@ref)
+model that is able to load itself back automatically upon precaching by
+[`precache!`](@ref).
+"""
+function serialize_model(
+ model::MM,
+ filename::String,
+)::Serialized{MM} where {MM<:MetabolicModel}
+ open(f -> serialize(f, model), filename, "w")
+ Serialized{MM}(nothing, filename)
+end
+
+"""
+ serialize_model(model::Serialized, filename::String)::Serialized
+
+Specialization of [`serialize_model`](@ref) that prevents nested serialization
+of already-serialized models.
+"""
+function serialize_model(model::Serialized, filename::String)
+ precache!(model)
+ serialize_model(model.m, filename)
+end
diff --git a/src/io/show/models.jl b/src/io/show/MetabolicModel.jl
similarity index 100%
rename from src/io/show/models.jl
rename to src/io/show/MetabolicModel.jl
diff --git a/src/io/show/Serialized.jl b/src/io/show/Serialized.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..83e427b930d775f678be9f9fe482f82a3acd388e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/io/show/Serialized.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+
+"""
+ Base.show(io::IO, ::MIME"text/plain", m::Serialized{M}) where {M}
+
+Show the [`Serialized`](@ref) model without unnecessarily loading it.
+"""
+function Base.show(io::IO, ::MIME"text/plain", m::Serialized{M}) where {M}
+ print(
+ io,
+ "Serialized{$M} saved in \"$(m.filename)\" ($(isnothing(m.m) ? "not loaded" : "loaded"))",
+ )
+end