This Research Training Group (RTG) will focus on training a new generation of scientists in (i) the development of analytical and computational algorithms for solving complex spatio-temporal problems that arise in biology and (ii) applications of these and other methods to problems arising in neuroscience and inflammation. In particular, on the computational side, this project will develop effective discretizations of coupled biological processes, iterative solvers and coupling/decoupling strategies. Within the neuroscience application, the investigators will derive new results on propagating waves and sustained activity patterns, synchrony and rhythmicity, noise and synaptic plasticity. Within the inflammation application, the research projects deal with the immune response to influenza infection, inflammation and sepsis, and models of necrotizing enterocolitis and wound healing.
This project builds on the research and training experience of the principal investigators who have ongoing successful collaborations with the departments of Neuroscience and of Computational Biology, the Center for Inflammation and Regeneration Modeling and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. The trainees are postdoctoral fellows and graduate and undergraduate students. They will participate in a variety of integrated research and training activities, including regular trainee presentations, journal clubs, working groups and research seminars, semiannual RTG Theme Days, an annual retreat, and an online forum. The biomedical applications targeted in this project are of enormous importance to society, as symbolized by the inclusion of inflammation as an NIH roadmap emphasis area for 2008 and the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.
This award supported interdisciplinary training and research relating to the development and use of quantitative methods for the study of complex biological systems (CBSG; see attached image for the logo we developed for use in trainee presentations and group-related materials). The project provided educational and professional development training to approximately 40 undergraduates, more than a dozen graduate students, and five postdoctoral researchers, including many members of groups traditionally underrepresented in mathematics, over a five year period. This training involved a variety of activities including group discussions of works from the published literature, ample opportunities for trainees to present scientific material to a group, course work on mathematical and computational methods, mentored research including interdisciplinary interactions, participation in conferences, and organization and hosting of outside visitors engaged in research in relevant scientific areas. The postdoctoral trainees who completed their time in our program have been hired in faculty positions in mathematics and in a scientific research position in industry, the students who completed their doctoral students with us have taken postdoctoral positions at universities and research institutes, and many of our undergraduate trainees have gone on to enter graduate programs in mathematics and other quantitative disciplines. Research projects under this award were primarily related to biological and medical questions in inflammation, wound healing, and neuroscience, as well as to mathematical methods useful for the study of biological systems. In the area of inflammation, for example, we have developed, analyzed, and fit to data new mathematical models for infection with influenza A virus, for inflammatory disorders such as necrotizing enterocolitis (a major mortality threat in premature infants), and for bacterial infection of organs. In the area of neuroscience, for example, we have mathematically investigated how fluctuations inherent in the nervous system contribute to neuronal encoding and decoding, how spinal cord and brain stem neurons interact to generate rhythms that drive repetitive, automated behaviors such as respiration, and how the details of interactions between neurons help determine what activity patterns neuronal networks can generate under various normal and disordered conditions. In terms of infrastructure at the University of Pittsburgh, the enhanced visibility of mathematical biology at the undergraduate level stemming from the undergraduate research supported by this award lay the groundwork for the development of a new Mathematical Biology undergraduate major. Furthermore, support of this award from the university administration led to a continued commitment to the funding of a new Mathematical Research Center, which now supports postdoctoral researchers, seminars, and conferences across all areas of mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh.
