Manuchehr Aminian, Department of Mathematics, Colorado State University – Applied Mathematics Colloquium

Title: Using mathematical tools to understand the immune system

Abstract: How soon after exposure can we identify that you’re infected with the flu? Can this be done prior to the onset of symptoms? Why do some animals tolerate bacterial infections better than others? It turns out we have been able to provide some answers to these questions in the positive! First I will discuss the ongoing experiments and studies of our collaborators which ultimately aim to answer these questions. Then I will present our group’s research in utilizing geometric, topological, and machine learning approaches to extracting information from this data, including identifying small sets of biomarkers from gene expression (microarray and RNA-seq) data sets and identifying anomalies and warning signals via nonlinear time series analysis on wearables data sets. Finally, I hope to give a brief outlook of where we are headed in combining these complex, messy data sets from a practical point of view.