2007 Summer Program in Mathematical Biology for Undergraduates

This program consists of two parts: (a) two weeks of introductory lectures plus short projects and a computer lab, and (b) a summer long research experience (6 weeks to be followed immediately after the 2 weeks) devoted to projects in the interface of mathematics, statistics, and biological sciences.

The 2007 Summer Program dates are July 9 - 20.

• Frequently Asked Questions

Program Leaders:

Dennis Pearl - Statistical phylogenetics
Dave Terman - Mathematical neuroscience
Greg Singer - Bioinformatics
Kate Calder - Environmental statistics
Joe Verducci - Chemogenomics

Week 1, July 9-13, 2007

Week 2, July 13-20, 2007

Team projects:

David Terman: We will explore mathematical models for mechanisms underlying the beneficial affects of deep brain stimulation, a surgical treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease.

Dennis Pearl: The phylogenetics project will explore the evolution and global spread of the bird flu (H5N1) virus and how this evolution may be related to the clinical course of the disease.

Kate Calder: The environmental statistics project will explore whether ice core-derived records of precipitation accumulation across Greenland can be used to determine historical patterns in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a climatic phenomena that influences interannual climate variability over large portions of Europe and North America.

Greg Singer: We will use database techniques to find human genes that are not present in other mammalian genomes. We will then attempt to characterize these human-specific genes.

Joe Verducci: Correlational methods will be used to relate mRNA expression to drug activity over the NCI-60 panel of cancer cell lines.