Conveners
Immunobiology and infection subgroup
- Amber Smith (University of Tennessee Health Science Center)
Description
The Immunobiology and Infection Subgroup was created to bring together researchers in the SMB community who are interested in the modelling and analysis of immune processes in human disease and of host-pathogen interactions. Our objective is to discuss various topics including
- within-host infectious diseases
- host immune responses
- causes and effects of inflammation
- disease progression and outcome
- integration of experimental and clinical data into models
- model-driven experimental design
In our 2018 minisymposium, we will focus on viral infections and how they relate to host responses and to cancer immunotherapies. The talks will also showcase diverse modelling styles and integration with data.
Influenza A virus (IAV) infections are often complicated by bacterial pathogens like Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP, pneumococcus), which have accounted for 40-95% of IAV-associated mortality. IAV-SP coinfection is characterized by rapid, uncontrolled bacterial growth, a rebound in viral titers, and a robust inflammatory response. Several factors contribute to influenza-pneumococcal...
Complex protein interaction networks complicate the understanding of what most promotes the rate of cancer progression. High dimensional data provides new insights into possible mechanisms for the proliferative nature of aggressive cancers, but these datasets often require fresh techniques and ideas for exploration and analysis. In this talk, we consider expression levels of tens of proteins...
Cancer presents one of the largest problems in our modern society. Understanding even the smallest aspect of this disease is immensely challenging due to its heterogeneous nature, a characteristic we term the 'same-same but different' nature of cancer. Heterogeneity can exist across tumour types depending on what stage the tumour is at or what organ the tumour exists in. There are many...
Immune responses to cancer-including innate responses and immunotherapy-involve complex biochemical and biomechanical interactions between tumour cells and many types of immune cells. To date, most modelling has not focused on the spatial and mechanical effects of these interactions. In this talk, we will adapt PhysiCell (an open source platform for 3-D multicellular systems biology [1]) to...