{"id":3668,"date":"2024-07-11T19:13:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T19:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=3668"},"modified":"2025-12-11T12:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:06:09","slug":"ezeji-nwanaji-enwerem","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/ezeji-nwanaji-enwerem\/","title":{"rendered":"Ezeji Nwanaji-Enwerem"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1443\" height=\"1443\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/EnweremEzeji.jpg\" alt=\"Ezeji, headshot\" class=\"wp-image-3760\" style=\"width:200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/EnweremEzeji.jpg 1443w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/EnweremEzeji-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/EnweremEzeji-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/EnweremEzeji-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/08\/EnweremEzeji-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1443px) 100vw, 1443px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>MIT Department: <\/strong>Chemical Engineering<br><strong>Faculty Mentor: <\/strong>Mehran Kardar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Research Supervisor: <\/strong>Arup Chakraborty<br><strong>Undergraduate Institution:<\/strong> North Carolina Central University<br><strong>Hometown:<\/strong> Concord, North Carolina<br><strong>Website<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ezeji-nwanaji-enwerem\/\">LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Ezeji Nwanaji-Enwerem, a rising senior majoring in Biology at North Carolina Central University, Ezeji has a passion for medicine and an interest for conducting translational research. His academic journey is marked by an array of research experiences, including research on sleep deprivation among a diverse population, COVID-19 transmission dynamics, and cancer research. Currently, he is delving into immunology research under the mentorship of Dr. Arup Chakraborty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ezeji\u2019s diligence and hard work are matched by his commitment to community service. On campus, he is an McNair Scholar and an HBCU White House Scholar, and he has been honored with the prestigious Cheatham-White Scholarship, the highest accolade at his university. His multifaceted achievements underscore his drive to make meaningful contributions to both science and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Modeling Infection Dynamics and Immune Response<\/strong><br><strong>Ezeji Nwanaji-Enwerem<sup>1<\/sup>, Andriy Goychuk<sup>2<\/sup>, Arup Chakraborty<sup>3<\/sup><\/strong><br><sup>1<\/sup>Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, North Carolina Central University                                <sup>2<\/sup>Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>To understand how viral infection can be efficiently cleared with minimal costs to the host, we<br>here develop a dynamic model of viral replication, the mounted immune response, and immune-<br>induced collateral damage to host tissue. Based on these biological processes, we derive a set<br>of ordinary differential equations which predict the coupled dynamics of infection and immunity.<br>By simulating various immune response scenarios, we hope to identify the optimal conditions<br>under which viral clearance occurs most effectively and understand when it fails. Our aim is to<br>delineate thresholds separating the regimes where (a) infection can be controlled with minimal<br>immunopathology or (b) immune function switches from protective to detrimental to the host. To<br>that end, we use our simulations to quantify the trade-offs between immune activation and host<br>damage. Finally, using empirical data to constrain the model parameters and derive theoretical<br>insights into the dynamics of the immune system, we hope to inform therapeutic interventions<br>which improve patient outcomes by balancing immune efficiency and tissue damage during viral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3760,"template":"","profile_category":[22],"class_list":["post-3668","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2024-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/3668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/3668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4934,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/3668\/revisions\/4934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=3668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}