Photo by Deb Gau Dr. Trachette Jackson, keynote speaker at the Southwest Minnesota State University STEM Symposium, talked about how mathematical models can be used to help predict how cancer cells grow.

MARSHALL — Math isn’t just something for the classroom — it’s also an important tool in the fight against cancer, Dr. Trachette Jackson told people gathered at Southwest Minnesota State University.

“Math is playing a transformative role in our battle against one of humankind’s most aggressive diseases,” Jackson said. Tools like math equations and computer models are helping scientists and doctors better understand how cancer cells grow, and how they can be treated.

“We can use mathematical insights to improve lives and drive real-world impact in oncology,” she said.

Jackson, a university diversity and social transformation professor of Mathematics and assistant vice president for Research – DEI Initiatives at the University of Michigan, was the keynote speaker at SMSU’s first STEM Symposium on Friday.

Friday was the first ever STEM Symposium at Southwest Minnesota State University. The idea for the event was to bring in speakers from STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) related fields, said Heather Moreland, professor of mathematics at SMSU.

“We’ve been trying to make this happen for several years,” Moreland said. “It has really been a wonderful event.”

Moreland said she hopes the STEM Symposium will become an annual event at the university.

On Friday, Jackson met with local high school and college students at events during the day. In the evening, she talked about the research she’s been part of, that combines math and biology to help improve cancer treatments.

Jackson said it takes a wide variety of people in different fields to find new ways to fight cancer.

“There’s been this narrative that, somewhere, some way, somehow, one brilliant scientist is going to find the cure for cancer. But the truth is way more complex than that,” she said. “Cancer isn’t a single enemy. It’s a multi-faceted, adaptive disease.”

Jackson said oncologists, engineers, biologists and mathematicians all have roles to play in cancer research. Jackson spoke about research she did with graduate students at the University of Michigan to develop a model of how cancer stem cells regenerate. Cancer stem cells are the driving force behind the growth of a tumor, she said.

“They have that property of self-renewing, so they can regenerate and create new cancer cells,” Jackson said. “They resist chemotherapy, they resist radiation, they hide from the immune system, so they’re just very hard to treat. So even though they’re not the majority of the cells, they’re the cells that are keeping the cancer alive.”

Using a mathematical model to predict how cancer stem cells grow can help doctors target cancer treatments to kill those cells, Jackson said.

In the group’s research, they worked with a mathematical model and computer simulations to try and figure out the most effective pattern of treatment doses for head and neck cancers. Jackson said the model provided a versatile framework that could be applied to other types of cancer as well.

“This is just one example of things you could do, and one example of an applied math approach,” Jackson said. “But all branches of mathematics have a role to play in the fight against cancer.”

Jackson said enjoyed getting to interact with students during the symposium, and taking questions from the audience Friday night.

“I love the interaction I saw here,” she said. “It’s rewarding to see a spark of excitement in students.”

Jackson said she hoped her talks at the symposium could help young people realize that they have new possibilities when they think about future study and career paths.

“It’s nice to show that, if you like math and you like biology, you can kind of combine them,” she said. Jackson said there are now more opportunities for researchers in math and other STEM fields to collaborate. “It’s changed so much. For students coming up now, the road is wide open.”