Cori’ana Carter
MIT Department: Chemical Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Prof. Arup Chakraborty
Research Supervisor: Andriy Goychuk
Undergraduate Institution: North Carolina Central University
Hometown: Plymouth, North Carolina
Website: LinkedIn
Biography
Cori’ana Carter is a rising sophomore at North Carolina Central University majoring in Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is a part of the Cheatham White Scholarship Program and is involved in the United Christian Campus Ministry, the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering, and Science African American Majors Evolving. She is passionate about mental health and medicine and recently received her Mental Health First Aid Certificate. Her research interests lie in pharmacotherapy concerning cancer and viruses. She is currently interning at MIT, creating dynamic models of the immune response to better investigate pathogen clearance from its host. Cori’ana plans to attend pharmacy school to pursue her PharmD after graduation.
Abstract
Modeling Infection Dynamics and Immune Response
Cori’ana Carter1, Ezeji Nwanaji-Enwerem 2, Andriy Goychuk3, Arup K. Chakraborty3
These authors contributed equally.
1Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, North Carolina Central University
2Department of Biology, North Carolina Central University
3Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
To understand how viral infection can be efficiently cleared with minimal costs to the host, we develop a dynamic model of viral replication, the mounted immune response, and immune-induced collateral damage to host tissue. Based on these biological processes, we derive a set of ordinary differential equations that predict the coupled dynamics of infection and immunity. By simulating various immune response scenarios, we aim to identify the optimal conditions under which viral clearance occurs most effectively and understand when it fails. We aim to delineate thresholds separating the regimes where (a) infection can be controlled with minimal immunopathology or (b) immune functions switch from protective to detrimental to the host. To that end, we use our simulations to quantify the trade-offs between immune activation and host damage. Finally, using empirical data to constrain the model parameters and derive theoretical insights into the dynamics of the immune system, we hope to inform therapeutic interventions that improve patient outcomes by balancing immune efficiency and tissue damage during viral infection.
