StemCellMathLab’16: Systems Medicine of Leukaemia 

MOTIVATION

Chronic and acute leukaemias are life-threatening cancers of the blood forming system. A continuous line of research over more than half a century has established a large body of evidence about the pathology and the pathogenesis of these diseases and has led to the development of a range of therapeutic approaches. These include bone marrow transplantation, chemotherapy and the usage of highly specific anti-leukaemic drugs. However, overall disease-associated mortality is still high for most leukaemia and even if appropriate drugs are available, the polyclonal structure of the underlying leukaemic cell pool and residual disease levels are still a major obstacle.

Increasingly detailed knowledge about the composition and the clonal evolution of leukaemia manifest the view that this disease can appear rather homogenous (as in CML where the characteristic BCR-ABL1 oncogene is detected in more than 95 % of the patients) or very heterogeneous (as in AML with a plethora of know mutations, which appear in various combinations and make each individual disease a unique instance). In any case, the requirements with respect to drug dosage, drug specificity and combination, patient response and residual disease will prospectively require therapeutic designs that are specifically tailored to individual patients’ needs. This, in turn, opens the gate for systematic and conceptual approaches that connect specific patient data with known drug effects and allow for patient specific treatment optimization.

OBJECTIVES

The StemCellMathLab 2016 centres around the question whether and how new schemes for leukaemia treatment can benefit from theoretical approaches and mathematical models. It is the aim of the workshop to elucidate both the potentials and the limitations of such strategies and actively foster the discussion about and the cooperation on the development of a (patient-specific) systems-medicine in leukaemia.

SCIENTIFIC THESES/QUESTIONS

Within the workshop we will discuss the following questions:

A.) Model-based data interpretation

What are current open questions in understanding basic biological principles that underlie hematological malignancies and how can these be addressed by mathematical models?

Which are the major limitations, caveats, and restrictions of datasets and of experimental models that make the application of mathematical approaches necessary?

Is the benefit for the understanding of biological principles higher than the cost of (over-) simplification? Or: How simple can/should models be?

B.) Theoretical perspectives/Model philosophy

Is the primary aim of mathematical models the prediction of clinical outcomes (i.e. “decision- making”) or are models more useful when treatments don’t work (i.e., in “understanding”)?

Because uncertainty in model predictions is inevitable, is it possible to define acceptable bounds on the uncertainty such that model predictions are: (i) useful; (ii) clinically viable?

Which degree of simplification (that is inherent to models) is acceptable for clinical applications?

Are “machine learning” approaches, based on “omics” data sufficient to predict biological/clinical outcomes or is a mechanistic understanding (still) necessary?

What are good/useful strategies to combine “omics”-based bioinformatic analyses with mechanistic modelling? What does “data-integration” actually mean?

C.) Clinical perspectives/Practical relevance of mathematical models

Which is/should be the role of mathematical models in study design/clinical decision making?

How can the knowlegde on basic biological principles be exploited in clinical practice?

Under which conditions and for what reasons do biologists and clinicians rely/not rely on mathematical predictions?

Can/should classical prognostic parameters (e.g. cell counts, pathological scores) be replaced by “omics”-signatures, in the era of “big data”?

STRUCTURE

Two day workshop with about 30 participants.

About 30 short presentations which should contain the researcher's personal view on a selection of scientific theses that are circulated before the workshop.

No classical conference style; all presentations will be included in round table discussions with extended time for discussion

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Start: 16th June, 02:00 pm

End: 18th June, 12:30 pm

The Scientific Programme you will find here.

CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS

Name

Affiliation

Centre for Health Technologies and the School of Software, University of Technology Sydney

COSTS AND ACCOMMODATION

There is no registration fee for the meeting. Free accommodation and meals are provided for all participants throughout the meeting. Travel costs have to be covered by the participants.
 

APPLICATION

A limited number of places are reserved for the participation of junior scientists, i.e. PhD students (preferentially in their final year) and post-docs. They should have a background either in leukemia and/or stem cell research or in mathematical modeling/systems biology. Furthermore, they should have the vital interest to broaden their scientific view by cross-disciplinary discussions.

The application is closed.

WORKSHOP VENUE

The workshop extends over the course of three days (Thursday June 16th, 1pm till Saturday, June 18th, 1 pm) and will be hosted in the Elsa-Brändström-Haus.

SOCIAL PROGRAM

Thursday, 2016 June 16: BBQ at the Elsa-Brändström-Haus (with a cultural surprise)

Friday, 2016 June 17: Dinner in the „Portugiesenviertel“ of Hamburg

ORGANISATION

This StemCellMathLab is organised by the Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry (IMB), Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden (Ingo Roeder, Ingmar Glauche) in cooperation with the Carl Gustav Carus Management GmbH Dresden and CSI Hamburg GmbH.

CONTACT

Ingo Roeder/Ingmar Glauche (scientific organization)
Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry (IMB)
Technische Universität Dresden
Blasewitzer Strasse 86 (Office), 01307 Dresden, Germany
 +49 (0) 351 458 6060


Dorit Ludwig (organization office)
Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry (IMB)
Technische Universität Dresden
Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
 +49 (0) 351 458 6062
 +49 (0) 351 458 7222