Applied Maths Seminar: Ahmed -- Multiphase and ODE models for early atherosclerotic plaque formation

Ishraq Ahmed (of this school) will be giving a talk on Wednesday 27 August at 1pm in
Carslaw 451.  Before that, we will go to lunch with the speaker, leaving Level 2 at
12.05pm.  Students are welcome to both (and get a free lunch).  

Title: Multiphase and ODE models for early atherosclerotic plaque formation 

Abstract: Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease in which lipids and cellular
material accumulate in the artery wall to form plaques.  In this talk, we present a
series of partial differential equation models for early atherosclerotic plaque
development.  These models use a multiphase framework with a time-varying spatial domain
to represent the growing plaque.  Using these models along with associated approximate
ODE submodels, we explore a number of phenomena underlying early plaque development.  We
focus in this talk on 1) the balance between cell death and the recycling of dead
cellular material, 2) the competing effects of pro-atherogenic low density lipoproteins
(LDL) and atheroprotective high density lipiproteins (HDL), and 3) the onset of cell
necrosis, and how these processes affect plaque composition and growth.