Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons^™

Zymosan Activation Of Tlrs: Stimulation Of Innate Immunity And Nitric Oxide Production, Sarah Loeser

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Chronic inflammation can result in pathophysiological changes to numerous organs of the body such as heart tissue (atherosclerosis) and damage to bone. Sources of inflammation can include autoimmune disease, cancer, and chronic infections such as those triggered by HIV or Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Most of the damage associated with chronic inflammation can be associated with chemical mediators, cytokines, given off by cells of the innate immune system. One measure of an active innate immune system can be assessed by quantifying nitric oxide (NO) production by bone marrow (BM) cells.

The purpose of these experiments is to determine if zymosan, a …

An Examination Of Mathematical Models For Infectious Disease, David M. Jenkins

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Starting with the original 1926 formulation of the SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Removed) model for infectious diseases, mathematical epidemiology continued to grow. Many extensions such as the SEIR, MSIR, and MSEIR models were developed using SIR as a basis to model diseases in a variety of circumstances. By taking the original SIR model, and reducing the system of three first-order equations to a single first-order equation, analysis shows that the model predicts two possible situations. This analysis is followed by discussion of an alternative use of the SIR model which allows for one to track the amount of sustainable genetic variation in a …