Mathematical Biology and Infectious Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

Mathematical biology provides theoretical foundations for elucidating and characterizing various infectious disease dynamics in the coupled ecological and epidemiological system. Several large epidemics in the 21st Century, including the original SARS, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19, have demonstrated the importance of the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases for effective decision support. While a large number of epidemic models have been developed recently, many of them focus on human populations (such as human population-level SEIR-type compartment models). Other important biological and ecological factors, such as pathogen evolution (e.g., changing infectivity, virulence, and resistance to current treatments), vector and non-human carriers’ population dynamics, environmental variability (e.g., fluctuations in temperature and other important ambient variables), and landscape heterogeneity (e.g., the fragmentation of landscapes that are important for vector and zoonotic hosts), should be considered in current epidemic models for a more accurate depiction of the coupled eco-epidemiological system. Understanding these factors, as well as their nonlinear interactions, is essential to developing and evaluating intervention strategies. An array of non-conventional cross-scale biological data, from multi-omics to ecosystems, can be synthesized and utilized for more effective epidemic modeling.

In this Special Issue, we encourage submissions providing cutting-edge methodologies and innovative insights in the interface of mathematical biology and infectious diseases. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the keywords provided below.

Dr. Shi Chen
Prof. Dr. Hua Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Mathematics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• dynamical systems
• data-driven and data-infused modeling
• multiscale modeling
• multi-omics in epidemics
• ecology and evolution of infectious diseases