York University

Genital herpes (GH), caused by Herpes simplex virus type 1 or 2 (HSV-1 or -2), is one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases in the world. Currently, there is no effective treatment for GH, but a new vaccine Simplirix (by GSK), is currently in clinical trials. Simplirix has had some success in preventing disease, but only in females that are HSV-1 and -2 negative. Since oral herpes (OH, also caused by HSV-1 and -2) infection can occur at very early ages, vaccination against GH may be most effective in a childhood vaccination program.

A major pharmaceutical intervention for management of many infectious diseases is the use of antiviral drugs. However, the rise of drug resistance poses significant threats to the effectiveness of drugs. This research proposes to determine optimal treatment strategies, through the development of population dynamical models for disease transmission and control, which can minimize the effect of resistance emergence in the population. This work will primarily focus on influenza infection, which still inflicts substantial morbidity, mortality, and socioeconomic costs worldwide.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an important medical imaging technology for clinical diagnostics. However, its slowness in data acquisition poses major problems in practice. In recent years, many research efforts to accelerate MRI data acquisition were based on the compressed sensing (CS) theory. CS is effective for signals that have highly sparse representations. However, it suffers from high computational complexity and lack of performance stability.

With many baby-boomers entering retirement in North America, and with the increasing size of the aging population worldwide due to economic and social development, managing retirement income becomes an important question for the finance and insurance industry as well as for individuals. At the same time, corporations are stepping away from the standard “pensions" they have traditionally offered employees. As a result, individuals are responsible more often for managing the risks associated with securing their retirement income.

Assembled at the height of the SARS outbreak in 2003, this project develops a variety of modeling templates.