Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Multiscale Modeling Of Toxoplasma Gondii, Adam Michael Sullivan

Doctoral Dissertations

Toxoplasma gondii is a potentially deadly parasite that uses a very unique way of manipulating the cell and immune systems. To investigate the mechanics of how the parasite spreads within hosts, several interwoven topics related to the study of within-host dynamics of Toxoplasma gondii are presented here. Understanding the complicated methods of how the parasite grows, dies, invades, replicates, and evades the host immune response is the critical aim of this independent research. Understanding the processes of acute and chronic infection are studied independently, followed by modeling the two processes in the same model. Finally, the dynamic models are simulated …