SEMINARIO
14:00-16:00, Sala Riunioni (Dip. Matematica)
The mathematics of viral hepatitis B and C
A. d'Onofrio (Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milano)



Abstract:
Probably the most important case of a mathematical model that
influenced medicine (both in basic research and in clinics) is given
by the mathematical models of HCV and HBV dynamics and of antiviral
therapies.
I will review some of them (mainly those by the Perelson's and
Bonino's research groups, and mainly focusing on HCV) by stressing
the current "grand challenge":
how to use and improve those models in order to understand the
problem of the disease-relapse during and after the antivial
therapies ?
In particular, I will stress how apparently abstract mathematical
concepts (global asymptotic stability, Floquet's eigenvalues, optimal
control, hybrid gillespie algorithms, delay differential equations)
map into practical clinical problems (disease erdication, drug
schedulings, late and ultra-late disease relapse).