MaPSS: Mathematical Postgraduate Seminar Series: Hugh Ford (Sydney University) -- Inflammation and PDEs Structured in Cellular Quantities

Dear All, 

We are delighted to present the MaPSS Seminar topic of Monday 10/04; please see the
abstract below.  

**This Semester the Seminar will always run on Monday, at 5:00pm in 535A** 

Following the talk, there will be pizza on offer.  

Speaker: Hugh Ford (Sydney University) 

Title: Inflammation and PDEs Structured in Cellular Quantities 

Abstract: Macrophages are cells which rapidly populate inflamed tissue and clear
pro-inflammatory material which enables the inflammatory response to resolve.  Funnily,
these cells eat their dead and recycle accumulated substances.  When this cannibalistic
cell population is expressed as a distribution (using PDEs) across accumulated
substances, we observe that a substantial proportion of cells contain an extraordinary
amount of material.  This is due to biomagnification where accumulated substances
increase in concentration along a chain of cells which have consumed at least one dead
cell.  Certain substances are cytotoxic in excess and induce necrotic (bad) cell death
which sustains cell recruitment to the site of inflammation.  This creates a positive
feedback loop which sustains both cell recruitment and necrosis and hence amplifies
inflammation in time.  

I will support and explore this theory using a non-local partial integro-differential
equation whose steady state can be determined analytically.  I will conclude with the
analysis of a non-local partial differential equation which suggests that cell
division/proliferation can halt biomagnification and promote inflammation resolution.  

Supervisors, please encourage your students to attend.  

Thanks,
MaPSS Organizers