Dynamic feedback modeling to predict random infection outcomes Brian P. Lazzaro from Cornell University discusses the role of dynamic feedbacks in determining infection outcomes. Consider the widely used metric of LD50, which is the dose of a pathogen or toxicant that is lethal to 50% of the individuals to which it is administered. This is an intuitive measure for contrasting infections. More virulent pathogens have lower LD50; they cause death at lower doses. But what was the difference among the individual hosts within each population infected with the same pathogen? They all received the same infection, so why did half of them die while the other half survived?
Brian P. Lazzaro (Fri,) studied this question.