REU Site: IUPUI REU Program in Mathematics with Applications to Medicine, Neuroscience, and Fluid Dynamics

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The REU Program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) will provide eight undergraduate students from across the United States with the opportunity to conduct mathematics research applied to medicine, fluid dynamics, and neuroscience. The students will spend eight weeks during the summer in Indianapolis working with faculty mentors from the IUPUI Department of Mathematical Sciences. This REU Site program will introduce students to interdisciplinary research experience and yield new research outcomes that will impact multiple scientific disciplines. Specifically, the participants will work on one of four main projects: modeling treatment strategies for heart transplant patients, investigating the influence of addictive drugs on the brain, modeling the forces and fluid flow over neighboring bone cells to understand bone development, and studying synchronization of brain rhythms in health and disease. The students will advance the analytical, logical, and numerical skills that are needed to continue their careers in STEM-related fields. The Site will prepare a diverse and well-prepared STEM workforce. The REU projects aim to address new and open problems in transplant immunology, fluid dynamics, and neuroscience. Students participating in the first REU project will work closely with a mathematician and immunologist to design, analyze, and validate a mathematical model of mouse heart transplantation in the presence of novel combination therapeutic approaches. The second project will involve a multiscale integrative model of bone cells and their surrounding interstitial fluid and bone matrix. This project will lead to a better understanding of bone development. In the third project, the students will develop a mathematical model (based on in vivo electrophysiological experimental data) that can be used to identify the neural mechanisms that underlie aberrant decision-making typical for alcoholic subjects. The fourth project will require mathematical modeling to understand the role of neural synchronization in brain functions. It will focus on understanding the increased interactions between the brain and heart during sleep. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.