Being the biologist in a world of mathematicians: Lessons learned from a decade in quant bio

Communication and collaboration between the mathematical and biological sciences is paramount to the success of many interdisciplinary projects. While working in quantitative biology education, Dr. Gabriela Hamerlinck began a collaboration with a group of mathematicians to explore African Swine Fever (ASF). This work resulted in the first published life history models for an argasid tick, Ornithodorous moubata, as a known vector of ASF. We propose two mathematical models of the life cycle of O. moubata. One is a continuous-time differential equation model that represents the tick life cycle with two stages, and the second is a discrete-time difference equation model that uses four tick stages. Both models use two host types: small hosts and large hosts, and both models find that either host type alone could support the tick population and that the final tick density is a function of host density. While both models predict similar tick equilibrium values, we observe significant differences in the time to equilibrium. This collaboration has resulted in a successful UF CLAS Scholars award and a SQuaRE proposal through the American Institute of Mathematics to explore infection dynamics and possible management of ASF.