Mathematical Biology

Seminars

Group overview

The Mathematical Biology Group at UBC is an interdisciplinary research group that applies mathematics in a wide range of biological fields including immunology, epidemiology, molecular, cell and developmental biology, electrophysiology and neuroscience, ecology, game theory and evolution. Specific areas of focus include protein interactions and protein mobility, regulation of gene expression, cell behaviour, tissue mechanics, immune responses, epidemic dynamics, bacterial cell division, the evolution of cooperation, game theory, speciation, and social aggregation (swarming). The group consists of a large group of core faculty members, some with cross appointments, and many affiliated faculty in mathematics and other departments, and a good number of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. It is one of Canada’s largest and most established math biology groups.

info for prospective students

We teach undergraduate and graduate courses in mathematical biology. Graduate students receive degrees (Master's and PhD) as members of the UBC Institute of Applied Mathematics. We are always interested to hear from potential graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. We recruit from many different backgrounds, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, statistics, engineering and the biological sciences. We often supervise undergraduate thesis projects (for instance, from the Biophysics and Integrated Science programs) and take on undergraduate students as volunteers (REX) and through summer award programs (NSERC USRA and WLI URA).
 

People

Faculty Research Interests
Daniel Coombs immune cell biophysics, microscopy, disease dynamics
Eric Cytrynbaum Self-organization and pattern formation in cell and developmental biology; cardiac electrophysiology; dynamics of excitable systems.
Khanh Dao Duc Molecular and Cell biology, Gene expression, Cryo-EM microscopy, Biological shape analysis, Machine learning, Applied stochastic process
Michael Doebeli Foundations of evolutionary theory, evolution in high-dimensional phenotype spaces, multi-level selection, and cultural evolution in human societies.
James (Jimmy) Feng Cell and tissue mechanics, fluid dynamics, complex fluids
Christoph Hauert Evolutionary game theory, structured populations, cooperation, reward and punishment.
Miranda Holmes-Cerfon applied math: mathematical modelling, computational mathematics, stochastic analysis, statistical mechanics, soft-matter physics, materials science, biophysics, computational geometry
Cyrille Kenne Mathematical biology; multiscale modelling of infectious diseases; partial differential equations - nonlocal equations; optimal control theory
Yue-Xian Li Calcium dynamics, signal transduction in cells, biophysics, neuroscience.
Anotida Madzvamuse Coupling bulk-surface geometric PDEs with multi-physics for cell motility and pattern formation; Data-driven modelling in Experimental Sciences and Healthcare
Geoffrey Schiebinger optimization, single cell analysis, applied probability
Emeritus Research Interests
Fred Brauer Mathematical modelling of epidemiological problems and population systems, with emphasis on the dynamical system aspects and approaches
Leah Edelstein-Keshet Models for cell motility, social aggregation and swarming
Postdoctoral Researchers Research Interests
Victor Juma
Graduate Students Research Interests
Katharine Faulkner Mathematical Biology
Shikun Nie
Jaye Sudweeks
Liam Yih Biophysics, virus dynamics