Rita Colwell Slides, Video, Abstract: Models developed for understanding and predicting outbreaks of cholera, based on work done in the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay of Bengal, today assist UNICEF and aid agencies in predicting risk of cholera in Yemen and other countries of the African continent.  With onset of COVID-19, the models were modified and used to predict risk of COVID-19, the current pandemic of coronavirus.  Thus, molecular microbial ecology coupled with computational science and remote sensing can provide a critical indicator and prediction of human health and wellness.

John Yin Slides, Video, Abstract: This mini-talk will provide a brief history of modeling virus growth in cells. The talk will also aim to highlight challenges and opportunities for experimentalists and modelers to productively collaborate in this exciting and rapidly growing field.

Ron Milo Slides, Video, Abstract: Quantitatively describing the time course of the SARS-CoV-2 infection within an infected individual is important for understanding the current global pandemic and possible ways to combat it. Here we integrate the best current knowledge about the typical viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in bodily fluids and host tissues to estimate the total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions in an infected person. We estimate that each infected person carries 109-1011 virions during peak infection, with a total mass in the range of 1 μg-0.1 mg, which curiously implies that all SARS-CoV-2 virions currently circulating within human hosts have a collective mass of only 0.1-10 kg. We combine our estimates with the available literature on host immune response and viral mutation rates to demonstrate how antibodies outnumber the spike proteins and the genetic diversity of virions in an infected host covers all possible single nucleotide substitutions.