Collaborative Workshop for Women in Mathematical Biology

Abstract

Biological systems are complex and highly interconnected. Despite increasing amounts of information collected, it is not always clear how to use these data to make conclusions and predictions. Mathematical models are powerful tools in biology because they allow us to abstract the biological system in order to frame questions, explore patterns and synthesize information. Indeed, we are writing these remarks during the COVID-19 Pandemic which has illustrated in a staggering way the importance of quantitative modeling in aiding our understanding of complex biological processes. This volume contains the scientific and collaborative work from the Collaborative Workshop for Women in Mathematical Biology. The workshop brought together forty-five researchers to collaborate on seven problems each of which used mathematics to understand complex biological systems. The workshop was held at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics on the campus of University of California, Los Angeles from June 17-21, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA and was organized by Rebecca Segal, Blerta Shtylla, and Suzanne Sindi. The articles contained in this volume were initiated during the intensive one-week workshop and continued through follow-up collaborations afterwards.