MAGIC091: Mathematical Biology

Course details

A core MAGIC course

Semester

Spring 2024
Monday, January 29th to Friday, March 22nd; Monday, April 22nd to Friday, May 3rd

Hours

Live lecture hours
20
Recorded lecture hours
0
Total advised study hours
80

Timetable

Tuesdays
11:05 - 11:55 (UK)
Tuesdays
12:05 - 12:55 (UK)

Description

Mathematics can be usefully applied to a wide range of applications in biology and medicine. Without assuming any prior biological knowledge, this module seeks to give a flavour of how mathematics can be used to gain insight into biological problems, moreover, we illustrate that biology can itself help us develop new mathematics, There is focus on model building and development as well as analysis. The main focus will be on models consisting of (partial) differential equations.


Prerequisites

The course will be primarily self-contained but some familiarity with ODEs, steady states, and stability, phase plane analysis for systems of ODEs will be helpful. For the latter parts of the course, some familiarity with the analysis of PDEs will be of use.   

Syllabus

The course will be split into three broad areas (note this may be modified dependent on the interests of the cohort)

1. Population Dynamics: discrete-time, continuous-time, interacting species,  spatiotemporal models.
2. Pattern formation: Turing patterns, chemotaxis.
3. Selected applications: E.g., cell biology, cancer growth.

Lecturer

  • CV

    Dr Chandrasekhar Venkataraman

    University
    University of Sussex

Bibliography

Follow the link for a book to take you to the relevant Google Book Search page

You may be able to preview the book there and see links to places where you can buy the book. There is also link marked 'Find this book in a library' - this sometimes works well, but not always - you will need to enter your location, but it will be saved after you do that for the first time.

Assessment

The assessment for this course will be released on Monday 13th May 2024 at 00:00 and is due in before Friday 24th May 2024 at 11:00.

Assessment for all MAGIC courses is via take-home exam which will be made available at the release date (the start of the exam period).

You will need to upload a PDF file with your own attempted solutions by the due date (the end of the exam period).

If you have kept up-to-date with the course, the expectation is it should take at most 3 hours’ work to attain the pass mark, which is 50%.

Please note that you are not registered for assessment on this course.

Files

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Lectures

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