DIMACS Workshop on The Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases: Host-Pathogen Dynamics
September 23-25, 2002
DIMACS Center, CoRE Building, Rutgers University
- Organizers:
- Denise Kirschner, University of Michigan, kirschne@umich.edu
- Alan Perelson, Los Alamos, asp@atlas.lanl.gov
Presented under the auspices of the Special Focus on Computational and Mathematical Epidemiology.
Co-sponsored by DIMACS and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Epidemic models of infectious diseases have been developed since the
middle of the 1900's. Hundreds of mathematical models have explored
the effects of both bacterial and viral pathogens on subgroups of
human populations and this workshop will provide an overview. After
decades of research focusing on infected patients and experimental
animals, most modern research in microbial pathogenesis takes place at
the level of cellular and biochemical mechanisms governing
host-parasite interaction; however, studies at multiple scales will
undoubtedly be needed for a deeper understanding of infectious
diseases. For example, linking pathogen-specific information to that
regarding the immune system will be critical for understanding the
dynamics of most bacterial infections. Components of host-pathogen
systems are so numerous and their interactions so complex that
intuition alone is insufficient to fully understand the dynamics of
the interactions. Mathematical modeling becomes an important
experimental tool. Recently, models of host interactions with microbes
have begun to appear, including models that explore bacteria-host
level interactions. These models have studied, for example,
antimicrobial chemotherapy, urinary tract bacterial infections,
mycoparasite-immune dynamics, tuberculosis. Models of persistent viral
infections, namely HIV-host models, also have a successful recent
history. Many of the key results that have shaped our recent
understanding of the T-cell and viral dynamics in HIV disease have
come from mathematical modeling approaches. Many others have given
insight into HIV-immune dynamics as well as disease progression. It is
clear that models of within-host events are tied to population trends
in diseases as well. A new line of research aims to link information
obtained at the host level to predict both prevalence and incidence of
disease at the population level. This workshop will focus on this line
of research.
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Document last modified on February 15, 2002.