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, October 11th (2:00 PM ET), IICD welcomes Jasmine Foo, PhD, Northrop Professor, School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota. 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/tJMqdumrrDsjH9DLNP8YZ6qpYzssyILJ-efC
Title: Computational Methods for Inferring Tumor Evolution and Heterogeneity
Abstract: Tumors are typically comprised of heterogeneous cell populations exhibiting diverse phenotypes. This heterogeneity, which is correlated with tumor aggressiveness and treatment-failure, confounds current drug screening efforts to identify effective candidate therapies for individual tumors. In the first part of the talk I will present a modeling-driven statistical framework that enables the deconvolution of tumor samples into individual subcomponents exhibiting differential drug-response, using standard bulk drug-screen measurements. In the second part of the talk I will present some efforts towards obtaining insights about tumor evolution from standard genomic data. In particular, we analyze the site frequency spectrum (SFS), a population summary statistic of genomic data, for exponentially growing tumor populations, and we demonstrate how these results can in principle be used to gain insights into tumor evolutionary parameters.
Bio: Jasmine Foo is the Northrop Professor of Mathematics and co-Director of the Therapy Modeling and Design Center at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her research group is broadly interested in mathematical biology, evolutionary theory, and data-driven modeling in biology and medicine. Current specific focus areas in the group currently include phenotypic plasticity and evolution, environment-driven drug resistance, treatment optimization, personalized treatment strategies, and modeling novel experimental platforms in oncology. Prof. Foo received her PhD in Applied Mathematics and undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Physics from Brown University. She did postdoctoral training at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and subsequently joined the University of Minnesota mathematics department in 2011.
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.
