The Mathematical Seminar: From Equations to Cures: The Role of Mathematics in Medicine

Abstract: In this talk, I’ll discuss how we use mathematics to make new medicines. Developing a new drug is very expensive and takes a long time, so mathematics helps making the process faster and safer.

First, I’ll talk about Pharmacokinetics (PK), where calculus is used to understand how the drug moves inside the body. The PK equations allow to calculate exactly how much drug is in the blood at any time.

Next, we’ll look at Pharmacodynamics (PD), which describes how the drug affects the disease. We’ll see that the relationship is not a straight line—it is usually an S-curve, and we have to find the "perfect spot" where the dose is high enough to work, but low enough to be safe.

Finally, we discussed Statistics. Because every person is different, we cannot just test one person and, thus, we need many. Statistics is used to prove that the result is real and not just luck.

Also, we’ll see how computer simulations are used to make several assumptions before real humans are involved in clinical experiments.

The Mathematics Seminar is a popular scientific seminar series for students in all years of the mathematics programme. Other students with an interest in mathematics are also welcome to attend. This seminar is given in Swedish.