Speaker: 

Natalia Komarova

Institution: 

UC Irvine

Time: 

Friday, May 26, 2017 - 4:00pm

Location: 

MSTB 124

In collaboration with Dominik Wodarz, we would like to announce a new NSF funded project, and are hoping to interest students to join the team. This will provide the opportunity to perform novel mathematical work in the field of virus dynamics, and at the same time to apply the mathematical work to experimental and clinical data in the context of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The evolution of the virus within patients is an important determinant of the disease process, and is also an important reason why treatments and vaccines can fail. Recent experimental data indicate that “social interactions” among different HIV mutants within the same patient can determine evolutionary outcomes, and this has so far not been investigated mathematically, in the context of evolutionary theory. The aim of the funded project is to fill this gap. This will provide new information that will be crucial to advance our understanding of the disease, and to design more effective vaccination approaches.