Jan and Jack Creighton Global Health Lecture Series

About the event

PRESENTER: Dr. Esteban Hernandez Vargas, University of Idaho

TITLE: Useful Maths: Insights into Immunology and Virology with the eyes of Mathematics

ABSTRACT: Mathematics offers a powerful lens for uncovering the unknowns of immunology and virology. In this talk, I will present how mathematical models can provide a new vision for understanding fundamental biological processes. We will discuss various topics, including how infection with one virus can protect against another lethal virus, how immune host dynamics influence outbreaks, and how HIV reservoirs persist despite therapy. I will also discuss how germinal center dynamics can be mathematically represented to explain the generation of antibodies that provide cross-protection.

Finally, I will share recent ideas from my ongoing NIH R01 and NSF CAREER projects, where we integrate advanced modeling approaches to investigate immune interactions and viral dynamics. Together, these examples illustrate the usefulness of mathematics as a tool for revealing principles that inform both theory and experiment in immunology and virology.

Paul G. Allen School for Global Health. Our scientists in Pullman and around the world are recognized as global health leaders in infectious disease, antimicrobial resistance, rabies control and prevention, and zoonotic disease. We provide advanced graduate and post-doctoral training in infectious diseases and immunology.

See past and upcoming Global Health Seminars and the procedure for proposing speakers.