Hwayeon Ryu gives mathematics graduate seminar talk virtually at California State University Channel Islands

The assistant professor of mathematics discussed multistability dynamics in a model of macrophage polarization in her seminar talk at California State University Channel Islands.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Hwayeon Ryu recently gave a mathematics graduate seminar talk virtually at California State University Channel Islands.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Hwayeon Ryu

Her talk titled “Bifurcation and Sensitivity Analysis in a Model of Macrophage Polarization” detailed recently published work in macrophage polarization process. In this talk, she presented a mathematical model for polarization of a single macrophage which, despite its simplicity, exhibits complex dynamics in terms of multistability.

She showed bifurcation and sensitivity analysis results indicating that external signaling cues are necessary for macrophage commitment and emergence to a phenotype, but that the intrinsic macrophage pathways are equally important. At the end, numerical results were presented, which helped formulate hypotheses that could be further investigated by laboratory experiments to deepen our understanding of macrophage polarization.