A ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ student is in Knoxville, Tennessee, combining math and biology to research mosquito-borne disease.
Hanna Reed, a mathematics major, accepted the National Institute for Mathematical and Biology Synthesisβ highly competitive Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates. Reed heads to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville to work on a biology project. Reed has experience with interdisciplinary research. Sheβs been working with Zhisheng Shuai to model phenomena, such as how disease spreads.
βItβs really interesting working with math models. You can describe a process with math and figure out other things you couldnβt before.β
βItβs really interesting working with math models,β Reed says. βYou can describe a process with math and figure out other things you couldnβt before.β
Reed explains what math models can do with an example of how the influenza virus spreads. She says you begin with different populations: people who are susceptible to the flu, infected by the flu and people who have recovered from a strain of flu. Working in a lab, Reed can trace contact rates, duration of infection and recovery. Using math, Reed can show how the flu moves through susceptible people, to infection and to recovered people.
βBy using the biology of what happens with the flu virus, we can figure out the rates, contact rates and duration of infection and recovery,β Reed says. βIf we incorporate quarantine or vaccination you can model that too, and answer questions like βHow many people do we need to vaccinate for the flu to stop?β β
Last year, Reed studied the modeling of cholera with a team of undergraduate and graduate students, under the guidance of Shuai. The team studied the cholera outbreaks in Haiti, taking into to account the impact of educational intervention regarding sanitation and hygiene. The team presented their findings at the 2017 MMA Mathfest in Chicago, Illinois.
βYou have to work with biologists, computer scientists and mathematicians to get a thing thatβs going to work.”
The skills Reed learned at ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ are what granted her the opportunity to spend her summer researching mosquito-borne illnesses and mosquitosβ response to environmental factors. She will work with UT’s Suzanne Lenhart, an applied mathematician, and Rebecca Trout Fryxell, an entomologist.
βYou have to work with biologists, computer scientists and mathematicians to get a thing thatβs going to work,β Reed says.
Mosquitos can be infected by a bacterium that changes the mosquitoβs immune system, almost like a parasite, but it can benefit the environment by creating an accessory to the bugβs immune system, preventing it from coming infected with Dengue or Zika. If biologists and mathematicians can come up with how to best infect mosquitoes with bacteria, there is a chance there could be a decrease in mosquito-borne illnesses.
βPeople have been doing this in some places like Australia and Vietnam where theyβve released mosquitoes into the environment,β Reed said. βTheyβve seen a decay in mosquito-borne illnesses because of it.β
When Reed returns to Central Florida she will graduate in August and begin teaching at a local high school.
