Published 06 March 2019
Dr. Saumyadipta Pyne, Scientific Director of the Public Health Dynamics Lab (PHDL) at Pitt Public Health, was a co-organizer of a week long discussion meeting and workshop on Mathematical and Statistical Explorations in Disease Modelling and Public Health held in July in Bangalore, India. The aims of this meeting included: 1) exploring different mathematical, statistical and computational approaches to integrate experimental and clinical data, and; 2) discussion on how mathematical modeling can help to interpret and integrate experimental data, frame and test hypotheses, and suggest novel experiments allowing for more conclusive and quantitative interpretations of biological, immunological and disease-related processes.
Dr. David Sinclair, PHDL Post-doctoral Researcher, highlighted the PHDL's agent-based modeling system FRED (A Framework for Reconstructing Epidemiological Dynamics), in his July 1st presentation on "Forecasted size of measles outbreaks associated with vaccination exemptions for school children". Though measles was eliminated from the US in 2000, over the last decade outbreaks continue to occur due to international travel and exemptions from mandatory Measles immunization for all school children based on personal and or religious reasons. Dr. Sinclair discussed the efforts to estimate potential outbreak sizes using an agent-based model, populated with synthetic representation of the US state of Texas.
Dr. Saumyadipta Pyne delivered a virtual presentation on July 4th on "Hierarchical modeling of high-dimensional human immuno-phenotypic diversity". Dr. Pyne described the computational frameworks developed with a focus on fast and automatic modeling and identification of different cell populations, their hierarchical structures and inter-relationships under different biological conditions.
