Student Anna Lieb
Dates of Involvement 2007
Faculty Advisor David Bortz


The research interests of Assistant Professor David Bortz concern biological systems. Bortz's focus has recently been on mathematical models of HIV. Simple nonlinear differential equations have proven surprisingly successful in modeling the long-term changes in population of virus and immune cells. Very few researchers, however, have modeled early infection pathogenesis, primarily due to the lack of reliable data.

Anna Lieb, a junior in Applied Mathematics, has been working with Bortz to develop and analyze novel early infection models. Dr. Thomas B. Campbell and Russell K. Young at the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) collaborate with Lieb and Bortz by providing access to viral load measurements from patients newly infected with HIV. These experimental researchers have measured the bloodstream's HIV content within weeks of an individual being infected with the virus, providing invaluable data for validating Lieb and Bortz's model of early infection dynamics.

HIV viron pictured here courtesy of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The reproduction of this photograph in no way implies any endorsement by NIAID. Graphic obtained from: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/howhiv.htm