Organisers:
Tyler Cassidy (Leeds University, United Kingdom)
Adrianne Jenner (Queensland University of Technology)

Program Description:

Genetically engineered oncolytic viruses (OVs) preferentially infect and lyse tumour cells, producing a direct anti‑tumour effect. In addition, OVs can provoke a potent adaptive anti‑tumour immune response. That immune response, however, also attenuates viral replication within infected cells, limiting secondary infections and reducing treatment efficacy. Tumour cells can furthermore evolve resistance to OV infection, complicating outcomes. Because treatment must both induce an effective anti‑tumour immune response and avoid prematurely suppressing viral spread (or driving resistance), designing optimal OV schedules is challenging and difficult to address with system‑level experiments alone. Mathematical modelling offers a way to quantify the mechanisms governing:

• the anti‑tumour treatment response,
• the development of an antiviral immune response,
• evolutionary dynamics driving treatment resistance, and
• potential synergistic effects with existing immunotherapies.

The workshop will form four collaborative groups, each pairing a senior researcher, an experimentalist and early‑career researchers skilled in mathematical oncology and immunology. The groups will tackle the problems using methods such as parameter inference, bifurcation analysis, stochastic and multiscale modelling, aiming to produce clinically relevant insights and advance both applied mathematics and oncology.

Program Structure:
TBD

Registration:

• Deadline: TBD
• Registration is by invitation only. If you are interested to participate in this program, please contact one of the organisers with your CV and research background.
• Arrival date: 29 August 2027

ASSOCIATED EVENTS
MATRIX Wine and Cheese Afternoon 31 August 2027
On the first Tuesday of each program, MATRIX provides a pre-dinner wine and cheese afternoon. Produce is locally-sourced to showcase delicacies from the region.