2022-2023 HU Interdisciplinary STEM Conference on Mathematical Biology: Modeling and Analysis
Abstract
2022-2023 HU Interdisciplinary STEM Conferences on Mathematical Biology: Modeling and Analysis This is a proposal to the Army Research Office (ARO) for an annual series of two interdisciplinary conferences on Mathematical Biology, with a focus on Modeling and Analysis at Howard University (HU) in Washington-DC. Worldwide, incidence of both diabetes and obesity keeps rising, and the two diseases have been recognized as a joint epidemic by the World Health Organization. The first conference in the next year s series, tentatively scheduled to be on December 3 - 4, 2022, will focus on Mathematical Modeling of Diabetes and Obesity. The mathematical models of progression to diabetes use insulin sensitivity as an input for model simulations. Insulin sensitivity is phenomenologically modeled by an exponential decay. But a mathematical model of insulin sensitivity should account for daily meal information and physical activity. The mathematical models of weight-gain have components for evaluating dynamic change in body composition from diets and physical activity. A novel mathematical model of dynamic change of insulin sensitivity based on dynamic change in body composition, as predicted by a body weight model, would be a major advance. The workshop will facilitate development of a program that combines the diabetes progression models and body-weight models to synergize prevention, control and intervention of diabetes and obesity diseases. Over the past several decades, many mathematical models stemming from the Hodgkin and Huxley model have been developed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of cellular events of excitable cells. However, understanding the pathophysiology of a disease related to the excitable cells requires mathematical models of the whole body or tissue level. The second conference, tentatively scheduled to be on April 29 - 30, 2023, will focus on Mathematical Modeling of Excitable Cells and Neuropathy. Mathematical models have been used to investigate the underlying principles leading to neuropathy at a cellular level. The mechanisms are studied by Hodgkin and Huxley type models. The mathematical model describes neuropathic pain by hyperactivity, transitioning to oscillations, and bursting, and bifurcation diagrams well capture the transitions. However, there is a lack of literature on tissue-level mathematical models. For tissue level models and a future direction of combining models at the cellular and whole-body levels, we plan to launch at this conference, potential collaborations between mathematical modelers working on excitable cells and clinicians specializing in diabetic neuropathy. The conference speakers will introduce participants to the fast-growing field of mathematical biology with a focus on the topics of diabetes, obesity, excitable cells, and neuropathy. Most of the models will be formulated in terms of dynamical systems. The conference speakers will demonstrate how the mathematical models can be used to enhance biology, and several lectures will also suggest open research problems. At the end of the series of talks and discussions, the participants will have a good understanding of how to follow the process of modeling, mathematically, biological processes, and at the same time they will be introduced to a large collection of challenging research problems on diabetes, obesity, excitable cells and neuropathy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 03, 2022
- Source ID
- W911NF2210038
Entities
People
- Abdul-Aziz Yakubu
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Howard University
- United States Army