DKO 2024 Lecture: Professor Reidun Twarock
This year’s speaker is Professor Reidun Twarock form the University of York.
Reidun Twarock is Professor of Mathematical & Computational Virology at the University of York. Her research is at the interface of mathematical and biophysical modelling, bioinformatics, data science and virology and focuses on the study of viral mechanisms and their exploitation in virus nanotechnology and antiviral therapy. She is currently an EPSRC Established Career Fellow and a Wellcome Trust Investigator. In 2018 she won the Gold Medal of the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications. See more at https://www.york.ac.uk/maths/people/reidun-twarock/
Event Lecture Title:
Viruses Under a Mathematical Microscope: From Viral Geometry to Polyhedral Packings
Abstract:
Most viruses package their genetic material into symmetric protein containers that resemble tiny Platonic solids. Group theory, the mathematical language of symmetry, can therefore be used to model and classify their structures. Surface tessellations called tilings identify the positions of individual capsid proteins and the interactions between them. By abstracting from the geometric shapes of the tiles and focussing on their connectivity, an interaction network can be constructed that captures the geometric principles underpinning virus architecture. In combination with stochastic simulations, this “mathematical microscope” provides a key to understanding viral infections, paving the way to innovation in antiviral therapy and virus nanotechnology. In turn, studying viruses through the lens of mathematics results in the development of mathematical methods and concepts that are of independent interest, for example in the study of polyhedral packings.
Please contact Maths-Ops@manchester.ac.uk if you have any queries about the event.
Speaker
Reidun Twarock
Role: Professor
Organisation: University of York
Travel and Contact Information
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1.205
Alan Turing Building
