Math Modeling Seminar: Multi-scale Modeling of Malaria Parasite Diversity

Math Modeling Seminar
Multi-scale Modeling of Malaria Parasite Diversity

Dr. Olivia Prosper
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
University of Tennessee

You may attend this lecture in person at 2305 Gosnell Hall or virtually via Zoom.
If you’d like to attend virtually, you may register here for Zoom link.

Abstract:
Malaria, a parasitic disease spread by mosquitoes, imposes an enormous health and economic burden across the globe.  The Ross-Macdonald mathematical framework for the transmission dynamics of malaria, developed in the early 20th century, has informed control policies for this disease and provided the basis for numerous population-level models for vector-borne disease of varying complexity.  In the world of infectious disease modeling, there has been an increased interest in linking within-host pathogen dynamics to between-host transmission.  I will introduce a multi-scale model of malaria that tracks parasite life cycle dynamics and parasite sequences within each mosquito and each human, as well as the transmission of these genetically diverse parasites between these two populations.  The degree of parasite diversity has important implications for the transmissibility of a malaria infection and the severity of the disease for the infected human.  We investigate how this diversity changes over time, and how it differs based on differences in environmental and epidemiological characteristics of the system.

Speaker Bio:
Dr. Prosper's research interests lie at the interface between mathematics and biology, with much of her work focused on developing and analyzing mathematical models of infectious disease dynamics to better understand the interplay between different types of heterogeneities affecting disease dynamics and disease control measures. In particular, her current work focuses on four main topics: (1) linking within-host pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics to population-level vector-borne disease transmission and the implications for the spread of drug resistant pathogens, (2) modeling the generation of within-vector parasite diversity and the subsequent spread of genetically distinct parasite populations, (3) understanding population-level dynamics arising from heterogeneity in spatial transmission patterns and host movement, and (4) model identifiability. Read more here.

Intended Audience:
Undergraduates, graduates, and experts. Those with interest in the topic.

The Math Modeling Seminar will recur each week throughout the semester on the same day and time. Find out more about upcoming speakers on the Mathematical Modeling Seminar Series webpage.
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