Topics in Mathematical Biology

Inspired by the Research Collaboration Workshop for Women in Mathematical Biology, this volume contains research and review articles that cover topics ranging from models of animal movement to the flow of blood cells in the embryonic heart. Hosted by the National Institute for Mathematics and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), the workshop brought together women working in biology and mathematics to form four research groups that encouraged multidisciplinary collaboration and lifetime connections in the STEM field.

The purpose of this work is to focus mathematical modeling on issues affecting women’s health. Working in six collaborative teams, researchers developed new mathematical models to address questions in a range of application areas. Topics include HIV, oral contraceptives, blood clotting, breast cancer, neonatal respiration, and outbreak forecasting. The work is the result of newly formed collaborative groups begun during the Collaborative Workshop for Women in Mathematical Biology hosted by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and UnitedHealth Group Optum in June 2022.

This book developed from classes in mathematical biology taught by the authors over several years at the Technische Universität München. The main themes are modeling principles, mathematical principles for the analysis of these models and model-based analysis of data. The key topics of modern biomathematics are covered: ecology, epidemiology, biochemistry, regulatory networks, neuronal networks and population genetics. A variety of mathematical methods are introduced, ranging from ordinary and partial differential equations to stochastic graph theory and branching processes. A special emphasis is placed on the interplay between stochastic and deterministic models.