Math Biology Seminar: Graham Donovan

Asthma is a surprisingly serious disease which exhibits a number of interesting dynamic phenomena. Because of challenges in making direct experimental measurements, mathematical modelling is a valuable tool for integrating the incomplete information available and exploring hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms at work. One such area is the phenomenon of clustered ventilation defects, where imaging of the lung during an asthma attack typically yields not just areas of reduced ventilation, as expected, but also some areas of increased ventilation. Moreover these clusters vary from event to event and are thought to be a dynamic, rather than structural phenomenon. In this talk I will discuss both general challenges in modelling asthma, and recent results from a model of clustered ventilation defects.