The innate immune system: some theory, some experiments and some medical implications
Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics
The Weizmann Institute
Simple models of the innate immune system teach us much about the development of infections when the bone-marrow function is damaged by chemotherapy. The results depend only on robust properties of the underlying modeling assumptions and not on the detailed models. Such models may lead to improved treatment strategies for neutropenic patients [1,2,3,4].
[1] Roy Malka, Baruch Wolach, Ronit Gavrieli, Eliezer Shochat and Vered Rom-Kedar, Evidence for bistable bacteria-neutrophil interaction and its clinical implications J. Clin Invest. doi:10.1172/JCI59832, 2012.
[2] R. Malka and V. Rom-Kedar, Bacteria--Phagocytes Dynamics, Axiomatic Modelling and Mass-Action Kinetics, Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, 8(2), 475-502, 2011.
[3] E. Shochat and V. Rom-Kedar, Novel strategies for G-CSF treatment of high-risk
severe neutropenia suggested by mathematical modeling, Clinical Cancer Research 14,
6354-6363, October 15, 2008.
[4] E. Shochat, V. Rom-Kedar and L. Segel, G-CSF control of neutrophils dynamics
in the blood, Bull. Math. Biology , 69(7), 2299-2338, 2007.