2020-07-29 –, Red Track
As climate change alters the distribution of disease vectors, the prevention of mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue and malaria stand to be complicated by shifting ecological realities. I use DifferentialEquations.jl to gain insights about the population dynamics of disease vectors that are subjected to environmental variation.
Improved knowledge of mosquito population dynamics can help control the spread of the diseases they carry. However, the interactions that inform such dynamics are complex. Computational models furnish an effective means for scientists to probe the environmental sensitivities of disease vectors.
I use DifferentialEquations.jl to develop a metapopulation model parameterized with empirical data, with which I explore the effect of various environmental scenarios on the population dynamics of malarial mosquitos. I briefly distill the entomological and public health implications of my results, and then explicate my approach to applying the DifferentialEquations.jl platform to this scientific question.
Valeri is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley and a Moore/Sloan Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science. She applies ordinary differential equations to study the dynamics of biological systems.