Feb 14, 2005 - Claremont, Calif. -

Harvey Mudd College Department of Mathematics professors Lisette de Pillis and Weiqing Gu have been awarded a $328,283 grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research into mathematical modeling of cancer growth and treatment strategies.

The funding, which lies at the intersection of information technology, biotechnology and mathematics, is provided by the NSF's Applied Mathematics Division over the next three years.

Along with fellow investigator K. Renee Fister, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics at Murray State University, they will bring together their expertise in differential equations and numerics, differential geometry and optimal control in developing mathematical modeling and analysis tools applied to the creation and testing of new combination cancer chemo-immunotherapies. Student teams will be involved in the research as well.

"The mathematical modeling of cancer growth and combination treatment strategies will add to our basic understanding of cancer response mechanisms in fundamental ways," they stated in the grant proposal.

A major outcome of the project will be the development of software for simulating and visualizing cancer growth and treatment pathways, involving chemotherapy and immunotherapy, which can result in the creation of new mathematically guided patient-specific combination treatment strategies.

The investigators will funnel discoveries for new treatment strategies through the ongoing meetings of a California-based Mathematics of Medicine study group. In turn, the physicians in this group will enhance the development of the mathematical models by sharing outcomes of ongoing clinical trials.

A unique aspect of the project is the collaboration of three women investigators who hope to attract more women students to this area of research. They will also serve as role models on the forefront of the fight against cancer, and in particular are in a good position to affect breast cancer studies, which are of particular importance to women's health.