Dr. Denise Kirschner

University of Michigan Medical School

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases and remains a significant global health burden even in the face of COVID.  TB disease and pathology presents clinically across a spectrum of outcomes, ranging from total sterilization of infection to active disease.  Much remains unknown about the immunobiology that drives an individual towards various clinical outcomes as it is challenging to experimentally address specific mechanisms driving outcomes. Furthermore, it is unknown whether numbers of immune cells in the blood accurately reflect ongoing events during infection within human lungs.  We have utilized a myriad of multi-scale approaches and analyses to study the host immune response to Mtb across multiple physiologic and time scales.  The models we developed range from molecular scale to whole-host scale and we used a hybrid approach combining differential equations and agent-based modeling at multiple scales. We use extensive analyses to predict mechanisms in the system driving different outcomes via parameters. Additionally, a key goal is to improve antibiotic treatment for TB. Currently multiple drugs are used simultaneously over a 6-9 month period which is a burden on the patient and medical system.  We use our models to predict regimens that can improve clinical treatment of TB. 

Bio

Dr. Kirschner is a professor in the dept of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan. She received her Bachelors, Masters and PhD in applied mathematics from Tulane University. She did graduate work also at Los Alamos National Labs and a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University joint with the departments of Mathematics and Infectious Diseases. For the past 25 years, her research focus has been on building multi-scale models to describe the host immune response to M. tuberculosis at multiple spatial and time scales and in multiple physiological sites including lung, lymph nodes and blood. To date she have worked and collaborated with experimentalists generating data on TB with mouse, non-human primate and human studies. Dr. Kirschner currently serves (and has for the past 20 years) as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Theoretical Biology. She serves as the founding co-director of The Center for Systems Biology at the University of Michigan, an interdisciplinary center at the University of Michigan aimed to facilitate research and training between wet-lab and theoretical scientists.

Math Colloquiums

Colloquium Seminars are held on select Fridays throughout the year. These broad audience presentations are intended to introduce the VCU community to the world of mathematics. Colloquium presentations explore topics in mathematics, applied mathematics, math history and education, and the exciting connections between math, science, art and humanities. 

Reception to proceed in the open area on the fourth floor of Grace E. Harris Hall.