Bio: Dr. Matrajt is a Staff Scientist in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutch research center in Seattle. She is an applied mathematician passionate about utilizing quantitative tools (mathematical and computer models, statistics, optimization theory) to understand complex biological processes. Her research lies at the interface of applied mathematics, biology and public health policy. Dr. Matrajt uses a wide range of tools from applied mathematics including dynamical systems, differential equations, stochastic processes, operations research and optimization theory to forward our understanding of infectious disease dynamics.

Dr. Matrajt was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico. She attended UNAM, where she studied Mathematics as an undergraduate. Dr. Matrajt moved to Seattle, WA, where she completed a PhD in the Applied Mathematics Department at the University of Washington, where she graduated in 2011.

Optimizing COVID-19 vaccine allocation

Vaccines have proven to be our best tool to control the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to limited vaccine supply, vaccine prioritization has been, and continues to be, unavoidable. In this talk, I will discuss two projects that used mathematical modeling combined with a fast optimization algorithm to determine the optimal use of these precious resources. In the first one, we determined who should be vaccinated first, and showed that the optimal use of COVID-19 vaccine depends on vaccine efficacy and vaccination coverage. In the second project we considered who should be vaccinated and how many doses they should get, and found that optimal allocation strategies with one or two doses of vaccine depend on the efficacy after the first dose, the background viral transmission and the amount of vaccine available.

WATCH THE RECORDING HERE.

The MICDE Fall 2021 Seminar Series is open to all. University of Michigan faculty and students interested in computational and data sciences are encouraged to attend.

This seminar is cohosted by the Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery (MICDE) and the department of Epidemiology within the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. Dr. Matrajt will be hosted by Dr. Rafael Meza, Professor of Epidemiology and Global Public Health.

Questions? Email [email protected]