Jul 22, 2022

SCMB concluded its 2nd annual Modeling Accelerator on July 22th, 2022 with final presentations from its four teams of undergraduate modelers. The program’s 13 participants, representing institutions from across the Southeast, spent six weeks learning the principles of theoretical and computational math-bio modeling and developing complex bio-systems modeling projects. Their projects spanned various spatial scales and biological contexts, from the immune system to amphibian parasites.

At the core of each of the projects was a fundamental question with far-reaching implications. Could a “hypertumor” of cancer cells with a selfish phenotype be used to collapse a growing tumor? How strong must a long-range immune signal be in order to quash a spreading short-range infection? How do parasites-of-parasites repeatedly and robustly emerge despite occupying a narrow, unstable niche? How do parasites with multi-host lifecycles calibrate their deleterious effects in order to most effectively climb the food chain?

Watch their final presentations here, and find the list of projects and their contributors below.

Hypertumors: a solution to Peto’s paradox

Team #1 - Cameron Heard, Arnav Hiray, and Sarah Hui (GT)

Interferons: a mathematical approach to innate immunity

Team #2 - Saúl Chavez, Thomas Cutro, Isabella Kulstad (Tulane)

Nature’s Equilibrators: Hyperparasites

Team #3 - Alex Mark, Beau Martin, Aditya Natham, Amy Sims (GSU)

Modeling predator-prey relationships in the presence of a multi-species parasite

Team #4 - Daniel Dale (Clemson) and Andalib Samandari (GSU), with Andrew Callahan (Clemson)