"Looking for the initial shifting of this threshold may allow us to identify a developing anemia significantly earlier than we can now," Higgins says. "Unexplained iron-deficiency anemia in adults is often a sign of a much more serious disorder. One study showed that 11 percent of those with iron-deficiency anemia not caused by obvious bleeding actually had colon cancer. In cases like those, diagnosing anemia 90 days earlier would be comparable to diagnosing the underlying cancer 90 days sooner."

An assistant professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, Higgins notes that the expertise Mahadevan brought to their collaboration was invaluable. "There are very few mathematically sophisticated scientists who are as knowledgeable about biomedicine as Mahadevan, and his boundless curiosity enables or even compels him to understand any necessary aspects of the biological system. He has repeatedly shown how complex math can lead to simple intuitive models of biological phenomena, and it's these simple models that truly advance our understanding."

Mahadevan, the de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Harvard SEAS and a professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, says, "Bringing clinical data, mathematical and computational expertise and scientific culture together to bear on problems connected to the practice of medicine is precisely what is needed to bring medicine towards becoming a finely tuned quantitative subject. John's rare combination of knowledge, talents and enthusiasm are a wonderful example of this approach."

Source: Massachusetts General Hospital