Mathematical and computational plague hazard assessment

研究背景平民和军事人员面临生物威胁的风险，无论是自然发生的疾病还是恶意攻击，目的和目标的目的是设计数学模型和计算工具，可用于支持危险病原体治疗的研究，并模拟病原体和免疫系统之间相互作用的种群之间的竞争动态。宿主生物体内的细胞。本项目中感兴趣的病原体是鼠疫耶尔森氏菌（Yersinia pestis，Y.鼠疫），这是一种革兰氏阴性细菌和鼠疫的病原体，鼠疫是一种人类和哺乳动物的疾病，自古以来就被认识到。由于它从许多角度（公共卫生，国防和安全）持续构成威胁，因此有必要进行研究，以更好地了解Y。鼠疫感染由于它具有高致病性，只能在实验室的最高级别生物遏制下处理，因此很少有组织能够与鼠疫合作。然而，有大量的已发表的数据，工业赞助商（Dstl）拥有大量的主题专业知识。潜在的应用和效益这个博士项目的目的是开发新的主机内的数学和计算模型来描述Y。通过吸入途径感染鼠疫及其治疗。Dstl和利兹大学合作开发了Y.因此，鼠疫对博士项目提出了一个重要而令人兴奋的挑战。这些模型将被整合，以提供一个工具集，可用于预测Y的气溶胶释放的后果。鼠疫，并研究最佳治疗策略。该工具集将允许在计算机上测试不同的医疗对策，并允许探索其他情况，如抗生素耐药性。该研究项目与利兹大学的健康与全球挑战研究主题保持一致资格：应用数学博士学位

Context of researchThe risks to civilians and military personnel from biological threats, whether fromnaturally occurring diseases or malicious attacks, are among the highest priorities for the UK Government.Aims and objectivesThe aim is to devise mathematical models and computational tools that can be used to support research into the treatment of dangerous pathogens and simulate the dynamics of the competition between interacting populations of pathogens and immune cells within host organisms. The agent of interest in this project is Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis), which is a gram-negative bacterium and the causative agent of plague, a disease of humans and mammals which has been recognised since antiquity. Due to its persistence as a threat from numerous perspectives (public health, defence and security), research is necessary to develop a greater understanding of the dynamics of Y. pestis infection. Since it is highly pathogenic and can only be handled at the highest levels of biological containment in laboratories, very few organisations are able to work with plague. However, there is a substantial amount of published data, and the industrial sponsor (Dstl) possesses a great amount of subject matter expertise.Potential applications and benefitsThis PhD project aims to develop new within-host mathematical and computational models to describe the process of Y. pestis infection acquired via the inhalation route, and its treatment. The partnership between Dstl and University of Leeds to develop innovative within-host models of infection and treatment of Y. pestis therefore presents an important and exciting challenge for a PhD project. The models will be integrated to provide a toolset that can be used to predict the consequences of an aerosol release of Y. pestis, and to investigate optimal treatment strategies. The toolset will allow different medical countermeasures to be tested in silico and will also allow alternative scenarios, such as antibiotic resistance, to be explored. The research project is aligned with the Health and Global Challenges research theme at the University of LeedsQualification to be attained: Ph.D degree in Applied Mathematics