{"id":646,"date":"2021-04-13T11:32:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T10:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/MathsUGProjects\/?p=646"},"modified":"2022-11-11T10:24:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T10:24:54","slug":"modelling-of-calcium-waves-in-in-vitro-fertilization-dr-k-kaouri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/modelling-of-calcium-waves-in-in-vitro-fertilization-dr-k-kaouri\/","title":{"rendered":"Modelling of Calcium Waves in In-Vitro Fertilization – Supervisor: Dr K Kaouri & Dr T Woolley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Title of project:<\/strong>
\nModelling of Calcium Waves in In-Vitro Fertilization<\/p>\n

Code:<\/strong>
\nKK2122A<\/p>\n

Supervisors: <\/strong>
\nDr Katerina Kaouri & Dr Thomas Woolley<\/p>\n

Project description:<\/strong>
\nCalcium (Ca2+ is a life and death signal, the most important second messenger in the body, carrying important information across all our cells. It also plays a very important role in embryogenesis, beginning at fertilization when fast Ca2+ waves sweep through the egg after sperm enters. These Ca2+ waves and their characteristics are a predictor of the embryo viability and pregnancy.<\/p>\n

In the project we will look at mathematical models of calcium signalling appropriate for fertilization, which are systems of nonlinear differential equations. The models will be analysed computationally with MATLAB and COMSOL Multiphysics and, when possible, they will be studied analytically through asymptotic analysis.<\/p>\n

This project falls within the booming, interdisciplinary area of mathematical\/quantitative biology and more specifically in the area of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), where an egg is fertilized outside the woman and inserted later with the hope of leading to a pregnancy. More than 6 million babies have been born through IVF to date and this number is increasing rapidly in many countries, including the UK. The project is, thus, of great interest to experimentalists and IVF clinics. We have an ongoing collaboration with Prof. Karl Swann, Chair of Developmental Biology at Cardiff Biosciences, and, if time allows, the models will be validated with data from the Swann lab. We also have a collaboration with the London Women\u2019s Clinic (Cardiff branch).<\/p>\n

The required mathematical background is differential equations and some acquaintance with programming, preferably in Matlab. The modelling and simulation skills that will be developed can be used in many other real-life problems. No biological background is needed, as any necessary knowledge can be acquired during the project.<\/p>\n

Useful references:
\n\u2022 Dupont et al. \u201cModels of calcium signalling\u201d (2016). (In the library.)<\/p>\n

Project offered as double module, single module, or both:<\/strong>
\nDouble<\/p>\n

Prerequisite modules:<\/strong>
\nMA0232: Modelling with Differential Equations
\nMA3304: Methods of Applied Mathematics
\nMA3303: Theoretical and Computational Partial Differential Equations<\/p>\n

Number of students who could be supervised for this project:<\/strong>
\n1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title of project: Modelling of Calcium Waves in In-Vitro Fertilization Code: KK2122A Supervisors:  Dr Katerina Kaouri & Dr Thomas Woolley Project description: Calcium (Ca2+ is a life and death signal, the most important second messenger in the body, carrying important information across all our cells. It also plays a very important role in embryogenesis, beginning … Continue reading Modelling of Calcium Waves in In-Vitro Fertilization – Supervisor: Dr K Kaouri & Dr T Woolley<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-2022","category-double","category-yr-4-description-2021-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.maths.cf.ac.uk\/mathsugprojects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}