ZIH-Colloquium: „Mathematical insights for immuno-oncology: side effects in CAR-T cell therapy, and plasticity-mediated tumor survival“

In this talk, I'll discuss ongoing research on two topics in mathematical oncology. In the first part, I'll present an ordinary differential equation model for cytokine release syndrome (CRS) in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. While CAR T-cell therapy is promising, CRS is a common clinical challenge. We developed a model for CRS that was calibrated with data from 25 patients with different responses. Using time-scale arguments, we relate the shape of the response curves to interpretable model parameters. Considering three known mechanisms of macrophage activation, we identify the CD40-CD40L axis as the primary driver of CRS, providing a clinically viable target to overcome CRS. In the second part, I'll present a partial differential equation model of tumor progression and survival mediated by phenotypic plasticity. Motivated by the role of population heterogeneity in cancer progression and treatment, we develop an integro-differential model that describes tumor heterogeneity within an aspect space of cell phenotypes. By introducing diffusion in the aspect space, we define a tumor plasticity parameter as the diffusion coefficient. Numerical simulations illustrate different scenarios with tumor survival and extinction dynamics.

Artur C. Fassoni studied Mathematics at the Federal University of Viçosa, in Brazil, and received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the State University of Campinas in 2016 for his work on mathematical oncology. Since 2013, he has been a professor of mathematics at the Federal University of Itajubá in Brazil. In 2017, he was a visiting scientist at the Institute of Medical Informatics and Biometry (IMB) at TU Dresden. His research deals with mathematical models in the field of immuno-oncology, focusing on leukemias and CAR T-cell therapy, approaching both applied and theoretical aspects. He received an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship for experienced researchers for a second stay at the IMB/TUDresden, working with Prof. Dr. Ingmar Glauche.

ONLINE: Link ZIH-Colloquia