Understanding the immune response in tuberculosis using different mathematical models and biological scales

The use of different mathematical tools to study biological processes is necessary to capture effects occurring at different scales. Here we study as an example the immune response to infection with the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis ( TB). Immune responses are both global ( lymph nodes, blood, and spleen) as well as local ( site of infection) in nature. Interestingly, the immune response in TB at the site of infection results in the formation of spherical structures comprised of cells, bacteria, and effector molecules known as granulomas. In this work, we use four different mathematical tools to explore both the global immune response as well as the more local one ( granuloma formation) and compare and contrast results obtained using these methods. Applying a range of approaches from continuous deterministic models to discrete stochastic ones allows us to make predictions and suggest hypotheses about the underlying biology that might otherwise go unnoticed. The tools developed and applied here are also applicable in other settings such as tumor modeling.