Turning cancer discoveries into effective treatments with the aid of mathematical modeling

-
Trachette Jackson, University of Michigan

Zoom link:  https://princeton.zoom.us/j/91802974666

It is an exciting time to work in the interdisciplinary field of Mathematical Oncology. Even TIME Magazine agrees that, “A team-based, cross disciplinary approach to cancer research is upending tradition and delivering results faster.”  Mathematical and computational modeling approaches have been applied to every aspect of cancer biology from tumor initiation to malignant spread and treatment response.  In order to improve therapeutic outcomes for cancers, a substantial amount of research is now focusing on the molecular biology of individual tumors in an attempt to selectively target pathways involved in tumor progression. Increased understanding of molecular mechanisms that mediate the pathogenesis of cancers is leading to careful manipulation of these pathways, and new cell specific approaches to cancer therapy are now being developed.

With an eye toward addressing critical challenges associated with cancer therapeutics, this talk will highlight a suite of mathematical models that are designed to optimize the use of targeted drug treatment strategies.  These mathematical models,  combined with existing and newly generated experimental data, are poised  to improve the ability to combine promising drugs for clinical trials. This type of interdisciplinary science has the potential to reduce the time and costs associated with transitioning novel therapeutic approaches from "equations to bench to bedside”.