Cancer Research

Gudrun talks with Changjing Zhuge. He is a guest in the group of
Lennart Hilbert and works at the College of applied sciences and
the Beijing Institute for Scientific and Engineering Computing
(BISEC) at the Beijing University of Technology.


He is a mathematician who is interested in system biology. In
some cases he studies delay differential equations or systems of
ordinary differential equations to characterize processes and
interactions in the context of cancer research.


The inbuilt delays originate e.g. from the modeling of
hematopoietic stem cell populations. Hematopoietic stem cells
give rise to other blood cells. Chemotherapy is frequently
accompanied by unwished for side effects to the blood cell
production due to the character of the drugs used. Often the
production of white blood cells is hindered, which is called
neutropenia. In an effort to circumvent that, together with
chemotherapy, one treats the patient with granulocyte colony
stimulating factor (G-CSF).


To examine the effects of the typical periodic chemotherapy in
generating neutropenia, and the corresponding response of this
system to given to G-CSF Changjing and his colleagues studied
relatively simple but physiologically realistic mathematical
models for the hematopoietic stem cells. And these models are
potential for modeling of other stem-like biosystems such as
cancers.


The delay in the system is related to the platelet maturation
time and the differentiation rate from hematopoietic stem cells
into the platelet cell.


Changjing did his Bachelor in Mathematics at the Beijing
University of Technology (2008) and continued with a PhD-program
in Mathematics at the Zhou-Peiyuan Center for Applied
Mathematics, Tsinghua University, China. He finished his PhD in
2014. During his time as PhD student he also worked for one year
in Michael C Mackey's Lab at the Centre for Applied Mathematics
in Bioscience and Medicine of the McGill University in Montreal
(Canada).
References

C. Zhuge, M.C. Mackey, J. Lei: Origins of oscillation
patterns in cyclical thrombocytopeniaJournal of Theoretical
Biology 462,432-445, 2019.

C. Zhuge, X. Sun, J. Lei: On positive solutions and the Omega
limit set for a class of delay differential equations. Discrete
and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series B, 18(9), 2487~2503,
2013.

C. Zhuge, M.C. Mackey, J. Lei: Neutrophil dynamics in
response to chemotherapy and G-CSF Journal of Theoretical Biology
293, 111-120 2012.

Podcasts

L. Hilbert, G. Thäter: Zellkerne, Gespräch im Modellansatz
Podcast, Folge 206, Fakultät für Mathematik, Karlsruher Institut
für Technologie (KIT), 2019.

M. Gonciarz, G. Thäter: Portrait of Science, Gespräch im
Modellansatz Podcast, Folge 197, Fakultät für Mathematik,
Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), 2019.

G. Thäter, K. Page: Embryonic Patterns, Gespräch im
Modellansatz Podcast, Folge 161, Fakultät für Mathematik,
Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), 2018.

L. Adlung, G. Thäter, S. Ritterbusch: Systembiologie,
Gespräch im Modellansatz Podcast, Folge 39, Fakultät für
Mathematik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), 2016.

Omega Tau-Podcast 072: Forschung in der Zellbiologie, 2011.

J. Schmoranze, I. Wessolowski: Beim Herrn der Mikroskope –
AMBIO Core Facility, Sciencekompass Podcast, Episode 009 B, 2017.