数理談話会

Microbes do not always lend themselves to standard methods of analysis. In many cases, one obtains nothing more than the sequences of fragments of their DNA. Discrete mathematics, even branches not traditionally classified as applied, can contribute here to solving very practical questions, such as “Do these fragments belong together?” or even “Is Zika/SARS/MERS/Ebola virus related to something we already have drugs for?”. This leads further, to new approaches to discrete problems, which can readily be extended to digital image analysis, for example. One can also ask whether mathematics can contribute to understanding why so many microbes resist individual analysis, by considering metabolic closure in some microbial communities in terms of positive linear dependence. Does this give us new insight into fermentation? The central message of this talk is that the boundary between pure and applied mathematics tends to disappear as one approaches biology, and mathematics of all kinds has much to offer that can most certainly be of interest to industry.