UBC Math Bio Seminar: Belinda Akpa

At a time when many are wrangling with biological ‘big data’, there remain important problems that are fundamentally data limited – often physiological questions for which there is little quantitative data, and further data collection may be hampered by limited resources, ethical constraints, or simply a lack of clarity as to which measurements are most likely to shed light on mechanisms of interest. Mathematical modeling can make impactful contributions in these contexts by maximizing the value of the existing biological literature and operationalizing data from disparate studies to build dynamic models. In this presentation, I will describe how – in a case where clinical trials are essentially impossible – we integrated limited physiological data with known biological and physicochemical principles to explore the multiscale mechanisms of action associated with a potentially life-saving therapeutic.