Name: 【TED】Irina Kareva: Math can help uncover cancer's secrets (Math can help uncover cancer's secrets | Irina Kareva)
Uploaded: 2018-05-01T11:21:04.000Z
Duration: 7 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I translate from biology into mathematics

which, in my case, are systems of differential equations,

that I believe may be driving behavior over time

about how these elements interact with each other

Then, I translate these assumptions into equations,

and translate the results back into the language of biology.

is that we, as modelers, do not think about what things are;

We think about relationships between individuals,

whether they be cells, animals or people,

and how they interact with each other and with their environment.

What do foxes and immune cells have in common?

and immune cells feed on invaders, such as cancer cells.

a qualitatively same system of predator-prey type equations

will describe interactions between foxes and rabbits

Predator-prey type systems have been studied extensively

describing interactions of two populations,

where survival of one depends on consuming the other.

And these same equations provide a framework

for understanding cancer-immune interactions,

And the prey employs all sorts of tricks to prevent the predator from killing it,

This can have some very interesting implications.

For example, despite enormous successes in the field of immunotherapy,

there still remains somewhat limited efficacy

require nutrients such as glucose to survive.

If cancer cells outcompete the immune cells for shared nutrients

then the immune cells will physically not be able to do their job.

This predator-prey-shared resource type model

is something I've worked on in my own research.

that restoring the metabolic balance in the tumor microenvironment --

that is, making sure immune cells get their food --

can give them, the predators, back their edge in fighting cancer, the prey.

you can think about cancer itself as an ecosystem,

where heterogeneous populations of cells compete and cooperate

interact with predators -- the immune system --

all within the ecosystem of the human body.

And what do we know about most ecosystems from conservation biology?

That one of the best ways to extinguish species

And so, once we have identified the key components

and simulate scenarios and therapeutic interventions

all in a completely safe and affordable way

and target different components of the microenvironment

in such a way as to kill the cancer without harming the host,

And so while the immediate goal of my research

the real intent, of course, is to save lives.

through mathematical modeling applied to biology,

and in particular, to the development of drugs.

It's a field that until relatively recently has remained somewhat marginal,

And there are now very well-developed mathematical methods,

and an ever-increasing amount of computational power available to us.

The power and beauty of mathematical modeling

lies in the fact that it makes you formalize,

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【TED】Irina Kareva: Math can help uncover cancer's secrets (Math can help uncover cancer's secrets | Irina Kareva)

immune

aspect

enormous

completely