SMB - Society for Mathematical Biology

Hi everyone! I'm co-organizing this retreat/workshop June 15-19 for those looking to get started in mathematical/computational modeling of biological processes. Location is a beautiful farm in NC. Please share with students and others who want to build modeling skills. Interdisciplinarity welcome!

Right now, @tedloch.bsky.social from Rice University is giving a talk on a coordination game approach to studying symbiosis.

Please see below for more information about joining the talk.

CIFAR MacMillan Multiscale Human School - CIFAR Follow Us FaceBook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Instagram CIFAR MacMillan Multiscale Human School The CIFAR MacMillan Multiscale Human School brings together PhD students and postdoctoral fellows […]

Great opportunity! Deadline DEC 17

The CIFAR MacMillan Multiscale Human School explores interdisciplinary models to build a virtual twin that accurately capture development. cifar.ca/next-generat...
@smbmathbiology.bsky.social
@stemcellnetwork.ca
@the-node.bsky.social
@biologists.bsky.social

Big congratulations to Dr Nikhil Sharma on receiving the Kiel Life Science Postdoc Award 2025! His outstanding work in theoretical biology and evolutionary graph theory makes us proud. Well deserved! 👏 #KLS #MPIEvolBio
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3847270/kiel...

(Photo: Christian Urban, Kiel University)

Excited to introduce the Latent Layers Framework – now out in @behavecol.bsky.social – to help think through when and why network differences confound inference in (comparative) social network analysis! 🧵

tinyurl.com/3k3yahwy

Its very exciting to see this paper out in @behavecol.bsky.social. These conversations, expertly led by @delphinedemoor.bsky.social, have really shaped how I now think about working with social network data. Check out Delphine's thread to learn more!

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Tomorrow 11/26 at 12:00: @andrejpaleo.bsky.social on the deep-time dynamics of Earth's biosphere.

If you’re interested in macroevolution, paleoclimate, complex systems, or scaling laws in natural history, this is one you shouldn’t miss!

Charles Darwin room @prbb.org! @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social

Catch exciting news and opportunities to engage in mathematical biology at NITMB in our November newsletter!

If you missed it, an archived version is available at www.nitmb.org/newsletter-a...

Postdoc position in individual-level incentives, social
learning, and payoff-biased imitation shape group-level accuracy in complex prediction and decision-making tasks in Konstanz

files.newsletter2go.com/l3slzozn/s_i...

Right now, Dr. Farshad Shirani from Emory University is giving a talk on "Infinite-Dimensional Dynamics, Spatiotemporal Gamma Oscillations, and Balance of Excitation and Inhibition in Cortical Networks".

Please see below for information to join the seminar.

Multi panel figure illustrating the following intuition for why group structures favoring altruism might be more common than those favoring spite. It considers the example scenarios with pairs of individuals. When the population is evenly split between 100 actors (altruistic or spiteful) and 100 non-actors, maximum positive assortment produces all same-type pairs (50 pairs actor+actor, 50 pairs actor+nonactor) and maximum negative assortment produces all opposite-type pairs (100 pairs actor+nonactor). Therefore, maximum assortativity produces equally group structures most favorable to altruism and group structures most favorable to spite. However, when actors outnumber non-actors (140 actors, 60 nonactors), positive and negative assortment have asymmetric effects on group structure. Maximum positive assortment still produces all same-type pairs (70 pairs actor+actor, 30 pairs actor+nonactor); however, maximum negative assortment cannot achieve all opposite-type pairs due to the surplus of actors – some same-type pairs (actor–actor) must remain (60 pairs actor+nonactor, 40 pairs actor+actor, ). Therefore, the maximum achievable positive assortment promotes altruism more effectively than the maximum negative assortment promotes spite. A similar asymmetry arises when non-actors outnumber actors (60 actors, 140 nonactors). Maximum positive assortment again produces all same-type pairs (30 pairs actor+actor, 70 pairs actor+nonactor), but maximum negative assortment cannot achieve all opposite-type pairs due to the surplus of non-actors – some same-type pairs (non-actor– non-actor) necessarily remain (60 pairs actor+nonactor, but 40 pairs nonactor+nonactor). Thus, once again, the maximum achievable positive assortment promotes altruism more effectively than the maximum negative assortment promotes spite.

Why is altruism more common in nature than spite? This new paper gives a general mathematical explanation: the degree of negative assortment that can be achieved is constrained in a way that positive assortment is not, particularly in unbalanced populations.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Poster announcing the workshop.

Join us for an @smtpb.bsky.social workshop on Modern Coexistence Theory. We'll cover mathematical foundations, the theory of partitioning, and data-based applications. Featuring @swatipatel.bsky.social, Nick Kortessis, & Lauren Shoemaker. Zoom link here: smtpb.org/event-6426026

YouTube video by WU Physics Department The Physics of Mysterious Cellular Droplets

I had the privilege of giving Science Saturday, an engaging public lecture meant to spark curiosity about the wonders of science. My talk, “The Physics of Mysterious Droplets,” explored liquid-like droplets inside our cells and the physics behind their behavior: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R16...

I’m excited to be included on the list as an Affiliate Member of NITMB. I look forward to visiting the Institute more often and actively participating in the scientific community!

Very proud that @gauravathreya.bsky.social's brilliant work based on his Master's thesis is out as his first paper in @asn-amnat.bsky.social. Interested in host-symbiont interdependence, eukaryogenesis, evolutionary transitions in individuality, and some great theory to back it?...check out the🧵👇

Excited to report that this paper has been accepted at Royal Society Open Science. Updated version coming soon!

Dynamical constraints on neural population activity - Nature Neuroscience Oby, Degenhart, Grigsby and colleagues used a brain–computer interface to challenge monkeys to override their natural time courses of neural activity. They found the time courses to be highly robust, ...

New work by Emily Oby et al. in Nature Neuroscience demonstrates that neural population activity in motor cortex follows fixed dynamical constraints: monkeys could not volitionally reorder or reverse latent trajectories during BCI control.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In a few minutes, Cody FitzGerald from Northwestern University and @nitmb.bsky.social will be giving a talk on data-driven modeling of complex biological systems.

Please see below to join us at the Midwest Mathematical Biology Seminar.

YouTube video by SMTPB Robert D. Holt interview

Sally Otto @sarperotto.bsky.social
and I are back with the next installment of “Reflections on the history of modeling and theory”, supported by @smtpb.bsky.social. Bob Holt shares his personal history and stories of his life in science: www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8hX...

European Conference on Mathematical & Theoretical Biology 2026 ECMTB is coming to Graz, Austria in July 2026. Registration and Call for Contributions are open!

Come join us in July 2026 for the 14th European Conference on Mathematical & Theoretical Biology in Graz, Austria!

Registration opens now: ecmtb2026.org

#ECMTB’26
@smbmathbiology.bsky.social

Right now, Professor Swati Patel from Oregon State University is giving a talk on the survival or extinction of structured populations in the presence of pulsed controls.

Please see below for information to join.

Speakers for SMB 2026 CDEV Minisymposium Are you interested in attending SMB 2026 and speaking in the CDEV Mini-symposium? Sign-up below!

We are organizing a mini-symposium at the SMB Annual Conference ECMTB 2026 in Graz, July 13-17, around the general theme of cell and development. 

If you are interested in speaking, let us know by signing up here: forms.gle/L8E1cFzPuSRS...

@smbmathbiology.bsky.social

Right now, Dr. Ruby Kim from the University of Michigan is giving a talk on Mechanistic Modeling of Dopamine Rhythms.

Please see below for information to join the seminar.

Really enjoyed chatting with @parmvir.com on the Biology in Numbers podcast! Thanks for having me. open.spotify.com/episode/2oIC...

Me doing my best to regulate my body clock using that sweet sweet Florida sunshine!
Thanks again @oliviawalch.bsky.social for the time and the chat for @smbmathbiology.bsky.social's podcast #BiologyInNumbers. It was super cool learning about your work @arcascope.bsky.social ⏰☀️💊

#scicomm

Right now, Dr. Hyukpyo Hong from the University of Wisconsin - Madison is giving a talk on asymptotic robustness of biochemical systems.

Please see below for more information about the seminar.

Virtual human development: merging experiments and theory to understand human development This Collection invites research leveraging experimental and theoretical models, and advanced research tools to study human development.

Last call! Share your work, ideas and perspectives
@biologists.bsky.social
@the-node.bsky.social
@stemcellnetwork.ca
@smbmathbiology.bsky.social
#virtualtwins
#digitatwins
#mathematicalbiology
#insilicotrials
#cellmodels

www.nature.com/collections/...

I had a blast helping moderate “ From Multiscale Immune Modeling to Medical Digital Twins Virtual Conference” @smbmathbiology.bsky.social
#digitaltwins
#virtualtwins
#multiscalemodels

Right now, we are hosting a talk by Professor Folashade Agusto from the University of Kansas. Please see the link below for more info about the talk.