Section: Overall Objectives

Research themes

Our main research works can be summarized as follows:

1. Building models in epidemiology and immunology. Studies of models and their global behavior. We will concentrate primarily on models for disease transmitted by blood-sucking insect vectors (malaria, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever) but we will also consider some diseases for which we have collaborations and data such as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, Hepatitis B or Meningitis.

2. Modeling and model validation guided by field data.

3. Design of observers (software sensors for biological systems): observers are auxiliary dynamical systems that use the model together with the available measurement data in order to reconstruct the unobservable variables (that are not measured directly) and to estimate some parameters of the system. Observers are related to observability and, therefore, also determine data collection plans.

4. Establishing control strategies for the considered systems that can help to determine some policies in public health and fishery.

In our project, Africa has a special place: Our research focuses on infectious diseases caused by bacteria, parasites in humans and animals. The populations of less developed countries are specially affected by these diseases. "End users" with whom we work are specialists in tropical diseases. This explains the interest in our project for African collaborations. A strong partnership exists with the network EPIMATH in central Africa. The objective of EPIMATH is to promote collaboration between different communities: Specialists in Health Sciences on the one hand and modelers, mathematicians, computer and automation on the other. Another objective is to encourage mathematicians from Africa to work in the field of mathematical epidemiology. This partner explains the strong set of data we have and also the number of Phd's students coming from sub-Saharan Africa.