We would like to invite you on Seminar of the Department IV

Jakob N Kather, MD/MSc, from  German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany and RWTH University Hospital, Aachen, Germany

will speak about „Cancer immunotherapy: What is it about and how can we model it?”

The seminar will take place in the room S90 Monday, october 22th at 1 pm.

Cancer immunotherapy: What is it about and how can we model it?

 Abstract: In the last few years, immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of cancer and has been rewarded with the 2018 Nobel prize in Medicine. For several cancer types, immunotherapy drugs can turn the body's immune system against malignant tumor cells, leading to longer survival or even cure of patients.
Immunotherapy acts on the interface of the immune system and cancer cells. Together, these cells form a complex ecosystem that is governed by nonlinear interactions. Understanding this system is important to understand and improve immunotherapy.
We are using mathematical and computational modeling based on biological and clinical data to understand this system. In particular, we employ agent-based models and ordinary differential equations as two complementary ways of understanding cancer-immune interactions. We show that these methods can achieve three goals: First, to understand how immunotherapy works and which factors limit its effects. Second, to predict which patient will benefit from immunotherapy. Third, to improve immunotherapy strategies and to find optimal drug combinations for a given patients.
Interdisciplinarity is key for these types of models and this talk will engage life scientists, physical scientists, mathematicians and other scientists alike.