Frontiers of Mathematical Biology

This workshop will highlight emerging directions at the interface of mathematics, computation, and biology, with a focus on how mathematical modeling, analysis, and data-driven approaches are advancing our understanding of complex biological systems. Topics will span multiple scales and application areas, including biological transport and mechanics, physiological and cellular dynamics, and integrative models informed by experimental and clinical data.

Plenary Speakers:

• Mark Alber – University of California, Riverside
• Boyce E. Griffith – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Anna Marciniak-Czochra – Heidelberg University
• Alex Mogilner – New York University
• Grzegorz A. Rempala – Ohio State University

Schedule:

• 8:30–8:50 AM – Breakfast and Networking
• 8:50–9:00 AM – Opening Remarks, Christina Grozinger, Director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
• 9:00–9:50 AM – Boyce E. Griffith, Modeling Cardiac Function: From Fluid-Structure Interaction to Fully Coupled Electro-Fluid-Mechanics
  
• 9:50–10:40 AM – Alex Mogilner, Reconstructing integro-PDE models of cell leading edge from observational data
• 10:40–11:00 AM – Coffee Break
• 11:00–11:50 AM – Anna Marciniak-Czochra, Space-scale separation and pattern selection in mechano-chemical models of symmetry breaking
• 12:00–1:30 PM – Lunch & Panel Discussion on AI × Digital Twin × MathBio
  • Fenglou Mao, NIH program manager, Foundations for Digital Twins as Catalyzers of Biomedical Technological Innovation (FDT-BioTech)
  • Fariba Fahroo, Program Officer, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
• Virginia Pasour, Army Research Lab Biomathematics, ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Biomathematics
• 1:30–2:20 PM – Mark Alber, Combined multi-scale modeling and experimental study of morphogenesis
• 2:20–3:00 PM – 10-Minute Flash Talks
  • Paul Bartell: Internal Coincidence of Circadian Oscillators Determines Circannual Expression of Behavior
  • Le Bao: AI-facilitated cancer treatment
  • Andrés Ricardo Valdez: Bacterial colonies meet Phages, and Computers
  • Changhao Li: Computational and theoretical modeling of plant cell wall creep
• 3:00–3:30 PM – Coffee Break
• 3:30–4:20 PM – Grzegorz A. Rempala, Modeling Complex Systems in Public Health
• 4:20–5:00 PM – 10-Minute Flash Talks
  • Xiaofeng Xu: Neural-Operator Learning of Amyloid–Tau Dynamics and PDE-Constrained Control
  • Jia Song: OT-knn: a neighborhood-aware optimal transport framework for aligning spatial transcriptomics data
  • Sun Lee: Optimal Control For Anti-Abeta Treatment in Alzheimer's Disease using a Reaction-Diffusion Model
  • Oleksii Krupchytskyi: Change of the Bifurcation Type in a Free-Boundary PDE Model of Cell Motion
• 5:00 PM – Closing Remarks, Camelia Kantor, Associate Director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences

Contact

  Wenrui Hao
  wxh64@psu.edu