This summer, the undergraduate students Edwin Rwemigabo (just graduated) and Emma Hawkins (year 2->3) have worked on the MILES funded project "Proof of Principle for Resolving Controversies in Mineral Transport". The project aims to design a mathematical model which predicts the amount of iron absorbed into our body from foods and vitamin supplements. Edwin and Emma have been involved in the early stage of this project and have made good progress in moving the project forward. They have tested mathematically various model possibilities by comparing simulations to experimental data in the literature.  By fitting the model to these data sets, they have estimated parameter values for the models, as well as investigated the sensitivity of the models to these parameters. They have also analysed the model mathematically and have made a start with predictions on things like the amount of iron the cells and the time taken for the iron to get from the stomach into the blood.

Thanks to the work of Edwin and Emma, the project has now an excellent initial mathematical model. Over the next couple of months, this model will be further refined. The existing data sets contain only partial information, and in order to get good parameter estimates the model needs to be fitted to a more comprehensive experimental data set which is current being produced by Ruan Elliott.

The MILES project team are Gianne Derks, Matthew Turner (both Mathematics), Ruan Elliott, Bernadette Moore (both Nutrition) and Theresa Hague (Biochemistry). If you want to know more about the project, just get in touch with one of them.