Freya Bull -- Blood and urine: mathematical modelling for health [IN PERSON]
| Dates: | 15 December 2025 |
|---|
| Times: | 14:00 - 15:00 |
|---|
| What is it: | Seminar |
|---|
| Organiser: | Department of Mathematics |
|---|
| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Current University students |
|---|
| Speaker: | Bindi Brook |
|---|
|
Join us for this seminar by Bindi Brook (Nottingham) as part of the Maths in the Life Sciences seminar series (and the online North West Seminar Series in Mathematical Biology and Data Sciences in collaboration with Liverpool Universities).
Title: Blood and urine: mathematical modelling for health
Abstract: The richness of life gives rise to many interesting physical and mathematical problems. I will talk about two of them: multi-scale modelling of blood rheology in sickle cell disease, and predicting the incidence of (urinary) catheter-associated bacteriuria.
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a haematological disorder, caused by a genetic mutation, in which mutant haemoglobin molecules can polymerise under low-oxygen conditions, altering the biophysical properties of the red blood cells. These cell-level differences then result in changes in the whole-blood rheology -- and those rheological properties are in turn linked to the pathophysiology of SCD. I use mathematical modelling and numerical simulation to develop descriptions of cell-cell interactions within blood flow, and validate these against experimental data.
Urinary catheters are prone to colonisation by bacteria. When this leads to symptoms such as fever, pain, or inflammation, it is known as catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI). CAUTI constitute up to 40% of hospital acquired infections, and the potential of novel materials and coatings to reduce the incidence of CAUTI has attracted much attention; however none of these design changes have been found to be effective, with patient studies finding mixed or limited effects. Here we apply a simple biophysical model for bacterial colonisation of urinary catheters to predict the incidence of bacteriuria (the presence of bacteria in the urine) in a clinical trial of antimicrobial catheter coatings -- the CATHETER trial.
The talk will be also be streamed via Teams, please contact carl.whitfield@manchester.ac.uk or igor.chernyavsky@manchester.ac.uk for the zoom link, or sign up to the mailing list.
To subscribe to the mailing list for this event series, please send an e-mail with the phrase “subscribe math-lifesci-seminar” in the message body to listserv@listserv.manchester.ac.uk
Speaker
Bindi Brook
Role: Professor
Organisation: University of Nottingham
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
1.009
Roscoe Building
Manchester
