Bringing a mathematical eye to immunology

Professor Vitaly Ganusov, Ph.D., combines math and immunology to investigate two of the world’s leading killers: malaria and tuberculosis (TB). Recruited from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, he is excited to have joined Texas Biomed and a faculty team so keenly focused on infectious diseases.

“I really like the spirit of the Institute,” Dr. Ganusov says. “There is this drive to solve world problems, find cures and understand how things work. I want to be part of that. Let’s solve these problems. Let’s help humanity in the best way possible.”

In his Theoretical Immunology Lab, Dr. Ganusov is using mathematical models and other computational biology tools to understand biological processes of infection and immunity and to identify potential diagnostics and treatments.

Dr. Ganusov, who holds a Ph.D. in biology from Emory University and another in physical and mathematical sciences from the Institute of Biophysics in Russia, relishes bringing the logic of math and physics to help explain the complexity of biological systems.

Specifically, he studies how Mycobacteria tuberculosis, the bacteria causing TB, disseminate from the lungs to other parts of the body, such as lymph nodes, spleen, liver and bone marrow.

“How exactly do the bacteria go outside of the lungs? What are the pathways and cells involved?” he asks. Answers to those questions could help lead to better therapies to stop the spread of TB throughout the body and control infection.

Similarly, Dr. Ganusov analyzes how malaria parasites physically move from the initial site of infection in the skin to blood vessels and then to the liver. His goal is to find ways to interrupt the process. As part of the research, he uses microscopy to observe how T cells respond to infected cells in mice in real time.

“We ask the question: are the T cells running towards the infection or do they just walk around and bump into it? And the answer so far is: they walk around,” he says.

Findings like these can help scientists define the limits on the number and quality of T cells a successful malaria vaccine will need to induce.

In addition to making observations, Dr. Ganusov wants to be able to predict what will happen using well-crafted mathematical models. Having such precise tools could potentially predict if a medicine will work or fail under different conditions. Biological systems are so complex that it is challenging to create models that are simple enough to work and still be accurate. This is the space where Dr. Ganusov thrives.

“The ultimate goal of any science is to become not just descriptive, but more quantitative, more predictive,” he says.