Timothy Wessler (UNC-CH), GMA Seminar

Title: Problems with HIV…and problems with modeling the problems with HIV

Abstract: A cure for HIV/AIDS remains challenging, so it’s important to find effective ways to prevent HIV infection. A promising strategy is to use antibodies and mucus to cooperatively trap HIV before they reach the cell layer. Persuading the community this is a worthwhile strategy to pursue requires a persuasive model. This talk will give background on the problem, followed by a discussion on the process of developing a model to solve it, point out some shortcomings of such a model, and how to resolve or accept certain shortcomings. It will also overview some of the tools available for solving such problems. It should be accessible to graduate students and will assume little to no prior knowledge of background material.