Conveners
Modelling memory in physiological regulation
- Jacques Bélair (Université de Montréal)
- Jane Heffernan (York University)
Description
A goal of all health researchers is to determine effective control strategies that can be provided to patients that will help them recover, or (when recovery is unachievable) manage their health conditions. Mathematical and statistical models are employed within these contexts so that the effects of current control strategies can be quantified, and so that optimal control strategies can be identified (given model assumptions and uncertainties). Recent developments of disease modelling have seen mathematical models being developed to address vaccination, drug therapy use, public health campaigns, and even online applications used to journal chronic condition experiences. This minisymposium aims to showcase recent modelling research of CDM and CRM collaborators on a wide variety of topics on disease control that are of theoretical merit and are significant to patient outcomes. The topics include HIV transmission and progression, haematological dysregulation, and immune system components in liver function. These topics will be of interest to mathematical modellers and health researchers alike. The minisymposium provides the participants and audience an opportunity to discuss emerging research topics and new areas for research collaboration in the fields of disease modelling and health. An underlying theme among all presentations is how non-instantaneous effects are incorporated in modelling equations.
The speakers will begin with a general overview of their field of study, introducing the biology pertinent to the question, and the mathematical tools that will be used. All talks will detail the mathematical models, results, and interpretation to healthcare and medical outcomes.
Topics covered will be regulation and control of platelet production, aspects of the immune system in liver regulation, lifespans of red blood cells and modelling memory CD4 T-cell populations in HIV patients.
Memory translates into time delays naturally in a number of regulatory processes at all levels of organisation in the life sciences: transcription and translation times in molecular biology, finite axonal conduction velocities between neurons, maturation times of precursor cells in hematopoiesis and infection and temporary immune periods in infectious disease propagation are but a few...
Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppresses viral replication, patients still suffer from both low CD4 T-cell counts and HIV persistence, requiring them to remain on complex ART regimens for life. A naturally occurring 32-base pair deletion in the CCR5 gene, the major co-receptor for HIV entry, is associated with infection resistance.
In the study initiated by Sangamo Therapeutics,...
The liver is a spatially complex and heterogeneous network of blood and bile flows coupled with metabolic processing and a favoured target for infection by hepatic viruses. We present here a mathematical model aimed at investigating these intrinsic heterogeneities and their impact on the dynamic of the Hepatitis-B variant (HBV). Dramatic spatio-temporal scaling from individual hepatocytes to...
Thrombopoiesis is the process for producing platelets, which uses a negative feedback to maintain homeostasis in normal individuals. However, pathological states exist where platelet concentrations in the body oscillate. An age-structured model for thrombopoiesis was developed and fitted to clinical data for subjects with normal and pathological platelet production. Variations on this model...
