Networks analysis in bio-medicine: Spreading processes and dynamics

Networks play a central role in modeling different complex systems, like biological, social, technological and many more. Analysis of such networks has been shown to be crucial for uncovering structure and organization of the underlying system. In many medical applications, of particular interest are spreading processes happening on networks. Understanding the essential dynamical properties of these processes and the role of network structure in modeling of spreading dynamics is a key challenge in fields such as epidemiology or evolutionary medicine.

In this seminar, we will consider two main types of spreading processes: epidemic spreading and information spreading. Epidemic spreading refers to spread of a particular infectious disease in a social system whose interactions are given by a network structure. Here, modeling goals are oriented towards developing techniques for simulating, controlling and eliminating the disease. Information spreading in medical applications, on the other hand, aims at spreading the information as fast and efficiently as possible. Practical application examples include raising disease awareness in cases of pandemics but also for diseases prevention, self-examinations etc.

Within the seminar we will discuss basic theory, applications and challenges of spreading processes on networks in the field of medical research on the basis of recent journal publications.

Refernces:

[1] Boccaletti, S.; Latora, V.; Moreno, Y.; Chavez, M. and Hwang, D.-U.; "Complex networks: Structure and dynamics ", Physics Reports,424, 4–5, 2006.

[2] Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, Claudio Castellano, Piet Van Mieghem, and Alessandro Vespignani, "Epidemic processes in complex networks", Rev. Mod. Phys. 87, 925, 2015.