Grajdeanu

Dr. Paula Grajdeanu gave a talk about her career from when she first started gaining an interest in mathematical modeling and a brief description of different models she has created in the past. She had a focus on applied mathematics and working with engineers but suddenly got had an interest for using math in life science. She then got a job at Duke University working in a laboratory with two biologists around 2002. One project was on renal physiology that observed how the kidney functions because its job in the body is to clean the blood and get rid of any waste. She worked on a partial deferential equation model that represented what could go wrong if the kidney fails to function properly. Another project she did at Duke University was on hemodialysis vascular access failure, which again used a partial differential equations model. This purpose of this model …show more content…
Grajdeanu main and current model she went into discussing was on lupus nephritis and its clinical background. This is inflammation of the kidney caused by systemic lupus erythematous that is an autoimmune and inflammation disease. Its therapies include corticosteroids, immunosuppressive drugs, and medications. Urinary biomarkers are used to test where the disease is coming from and help determine what therapy is best for the patient. Dr. Grajdeanu thought of a solution to integrate biomarkers into a dynamical model of lupus nephritis. She created a model that demonstrates the interaction of biomarkers and other important variables in the disease. She is hoping that in the future the model can be used to make predictions like which patient will flare and when will a patient flare. She wants her model to be understandable to a biologist who does not have a mathematical modeling background. She is still continuing her research with lupus and ended the seminar with a message of keeping in mind that its not how complicated we can make a model but how useful we can make it so that others can use it