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HKU IDS Scholar Seminar Series #11: Personalizing Cancer Therapy by Modeling the Evolutionary Dynamics of the Tumor Immune Microenvironment

Title: Personalizing Cancer Therapy by Modeling the Evolutionary Dynamics of the Tumor Immune Microenvironment
Speaker: Professor Qingpeng Zhang, Associate Professor, HKU IDS & Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, HKU
Date: October 28, 2024
Time: 10:30am – 11:30am

Venue: IDS Seminar Room, P603, Graduate House / Zoom 
Mode: Hybrid. Seats for on-site participants are limited. A confirmation email will be sent to participants who have successfully registered.

Abstract

In this talk, we present our research on using mathematical modeling and machine learning to characterize the evolutionary dynamics of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) for personalized cancer therapy. We developed various ODE-based TIME models, integrating genomic and transcriptomic data. These models, enhanced by deep reinforcement learning (DRL), optimize therapy regimens, including intermittent androgen deprivation therapy (IADT) for prostate cancer and personalized schedules for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and chemotherapy. Our findings demonstrate the potential of these approaches to improve patient outcomes by tailoring treatments to individual tumor dynamics.

Speaker

Prof. Qingpeng ZHANG
Associate Professor @ HKU IDS & Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy

Qingpeng ZHANG is an Associate Professor at the Musketeers Foundation Institute of Data Science and the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, LKS Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong. Previously a faculty member at the City University of Hong Kong, he continues his association as an Adjunct Professor. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He serves as an Associate Editor for npj Digital Medicine, BMJ Mental Health, INFORMS Journal on Data Science, IEEE TCSS, and IEEE TITS. Dr. Zhang’s research centers on the creation of knowledge-enhanced, AI-driven predictive decision analytics methods. These methods aim to dissect high-dimensional biological, clinical, and behavioral data to contribute to drug discovery, precision medicine, and public health. His work has appeared in journals such as Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Communications, PNAS, and MIS Quarterly, and has been highlighted in media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Ming Pao. He has received the President’s Award and the Outstanding Research Award from CityU, as well as the Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award from IEEE.

For full biography of Prof. ZHANG, please refer to: https://datascience.hku.hk/people/qingpeng-zhang/

Moderator

Prof. Yi Ma
Director; Professor, Chair of Artificial Intelligence @ HKU IDS & Department of Computer Science 

Professor Yi Ma is a Chair Professor in the Musketeers Foundation Institute of Data Science (HKU IDS) and Department of Computer Science at the University of Hong Kong. He took up the Directorship of HKU IDS on January 12, 2023. He is also a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published about 60 journal papers, 120 conference papers, and three textbooks in computer vision, generalized principal component analysis, and high-dimensional data analysis. 

Professor Ma’s research interests cover computer vision, high-dimensional data analysis, and intelligent systems. For full biography of Professor Ma, please refer to: https://datascience.hku.hk/people/yi-ma/

For information, please contact:
Email: datascience@hku.hk