Minisymposium
Mathematical and computational approaches to modelling immunology
Organisers
- Suzan Farhang Sardroodi (University of Manitoba)
- Morgan Craig (Université de Montréal)
- Jane Heffernan (York University)
- Samaneh Gholami (York University)
Speakers
- Kathleen Wilkie (Toronto Metropolitan University)
- Rebecca Bekker (H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute)
- Benedict Anchang (National Institute of Environmental Health Science, NIH)
- Jessica Conway (Penn State)
- Ruian Ke (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
- Xiaoyan Deng (Université de Montréal)
- Chapin Korosec (York University)
Description
Mathematical and computational immunology is a rapidly evolving field dealing with the application of mathematical and computational methods to explore the structure, dynamics, organization, and regulation of the immune system in health and disease. Mathematical and computational immunology provides qualitative and quantitative assessments of various immune processes across multiple scales and in various contexts, including cancer and host-pathogen responses. The advances in genetics and biochemistry that have taken place over the last 10 years have led to significant progress in experimental and clinical immunology. In turn, this has furthered the development of new mathematical and computational models with which we can qualitatively and quantitatively investigate various open questions in immunology, particularly those that may be difficult to answer experimentally or clinically. Thus, as part of the test predict test paradigm and with cutting-edge wet-lab immunology, mathematical and computational immunology is well-positioned to elucidate a range of questions about cancer development, new cancer immunotherapies and their administration, and features distinguishing immunopathological responses to pathogens. This mini-symposium will address such multi scale mathematical and computational immunology models through two themes: interactions between cancers and the immune system, and interactions between pathogens and the immune system. Our goal is to bring together participants across career stages and points of reference to foster new, innovative approaches to understanding human immune responses and advance this nascent field.