The Herbert and Florence Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics will continue its seminar series on the topic of mathematical sciences underpinning cancer research during the 2022-2023 academic year. The monthly seminars take place on the second Wednesday of the month, 2:00-3:00 PM EST. The presentations are open to the Columbia community (in person and online) and to researchers outside Columbia (via Zoom).
On Wednesday, November 8th (2:00 PM ET), IICD welcomes Ivana Bozic, PhD, Associate Professor, Applied Mathematics, University of Washington. Seminar hosted by Simon Tavaré, FRS. The seminar will take place in person in Fairchild 700 (Morningside Heights campus). If you wish to attend the seminar remotely, please register using the following link: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMsc-urpz4tG9Mp6hL_kbPIQBOqQ1L4coUa
Title: Quantifying Evolutionary Dynamics of Cancer
Abstract: Cancer is the result of a stochastic evolutionary process characterized by the accumulation of mutations that are responsible for tumor initiation, progression, immune escape, and drug resistance, as well as mutations with no effect on the phenotype. Mathematical modeling can be used to describe the dynamics of tumor cell populations and to obtain insights into the hidden evolutionary processes leading to cancer. I will present recent mathematical approaches to quantify evolutionary dynamics of cancer in patients, and their implications for interpretation of cancer sequencing data. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss insights into the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia obtained from combining longitudinal sequencing data and computational modeling. In the second part of the talk, I will describe a novel framework for precisely quantifying the dynamics of colorectal cancer initiation.
Bio: Ivana Bozic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Washington, and an affiliate faculty member in the Herbold Computational Biology Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She received her BSc and MA in Mathematics from the University of Belgrade in Serbia, and her PhD in Mathematics from Harvard University. She is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Scholar, and winner of the 2023 Akira Okubo Prize from the Society for Mathematical Biology. Her work is focused on using mathematics together with clinical and experimental data to uncover the evolutionary dynamics of cancer.
If you would like to meet one-on-one (possibility via zoom) or attend the lunch or dinner with the speaker, please contact the event organizer.
