ICTS

From the ominous conclusion “there is no treatment” mentioned in the ancient Egyptian Edwyn Smith papyrus, to a remarkable recent clinical trial on rectal cancer patients using dostarlimab – where all 12 enrolled patients achieved complete remission with no recurrence for up to 25 months of follow up, our understanding of cancer and its treatment has progressed immensely over the years. Yet, the majority of cancer types remain untreatable due to eventual development of drug resistance and metastasis, and newer approaches to understanding the fundamental principles of cancer are much needed.
 
With the advent of advanced sequencing and imaging techniques and ever-increasing resolution and throughput of current experimental technologies, mathematical and computational approaches in cancer are now witnessing a revolution. There is a rapidly increasing effort to use theoretical tools as orthogonal approaches to understand and control the evolution of this disease. Recent mathematical modeling efforts have also served to help design novel clinical trials, thereby highlighting the potential translational importance of such approaches. This workshop will bring together scientists from various fields of theoretical cancer research to teach and discuss state-of-the art approaches in modeling cancer, with specific attention paid to understanding, interpreting and utilizing data from a variety of sources. Over the course of two weeks, pedagogical classes and research talks will cover a variety of topics, ranging from the theory of age-structured populations, systems biology of cancer networks, dynamical modeling of heterogeneous populations, to techniques from machine learning and statistical inference.

Eligibility Criteria: Applications are open to final-year undergraduates and above. Some level of comfort with basic mathematics (algebra, ordinary differential equations) and computation (coding in any language such as R, Python, Fortran, C) is required. Students from any background can apply with these basic prerequisites.

Accommodation will be provided for outstation participants at our on campus guest house.

ICTS is committed to building an environment that is inclusive, non-discriminatory and welcoming of diverse individuals. We especially encourage the participation of women and other under-represented groups.