PROJECT
SUPERVISORS
Project Supervisor
Peter Rashkov
Background
I obtained my doctoral degree in Mathematics from Jacobs University Bremen (Germany), specializing in time-frequency analysis. I then transitioned into the field of mathematical modeling in biology as a postdoctoral researcher at the LOEWE Centre for Synthetic Microbiology in Marburg (Germany), where I spent four years developing models for regulatory networks governing cell polarity. Subsequently, I pursued a second postdoctoral position at the University of Exeter (UK), working in collaboration with AstraZeneca on PK/PD models for kinase inhibitors in cancer research.
In 2017, I returned to Bulgaria, where I earned my habilitation at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics in Sofia.
Currently, I teach part-time at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University and serve on the editorial board of the journal BIOMATH.
Research
My research group is part of the Department of Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis, which has a diverse portfolio spanning numerical analysis, functional analysis, approximation theory, and error analysis, with applications in geophysics, biology, chemistry, economics, medicine, and engineering. The department also develops efficient numerical methods and algorithms for solving linear and nonlinear partial differential and integral equations and systems, as well as for investigating the controllability of dynamical systems.
Within this setting, my research focuses on mathematical models for cancer immunotherapy, infectious diseases and chronic inflammatory disorders, with an emphasis on applying bifurcation theory and control theory to their analysis. I have supervised an MSc thesis at Sofia University on a control problem in mathematical epidemiology for a multi-patch system, and I am currently supervising a PhD candidate working on mechanistic mathematical models of the immune response in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Publications
Suvandjieva V, Tsacheva I, Santos M, Kararigas G, Rashkov P (2024). Modelling the impact of NETosis during the initial stage of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Bull. Math. Biol., 86(6): 66.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-024-01291-3
Rashkov P, Kooi BW (2021). Complexity of host-vector dynamics in a two-strain dengue model. J. Biol. Dynam., 15: 35–72.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17513758.2020.1864038
Borisov M, Dimitriu G, Rashkov P (2019). Modelling the host immune response to mature and immature dengue viruses. Bull. Math. Biol., 81(12): 4951–4976.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-019-00664-3
Rashkov P (2022). Reduced basis approximation for a spatial Lotka-Volterra model. Mathematics, 10(12): 1983.
https://doi.org/10.3390/math10121983
Rashkov P, Barrett IP, Beardmore RE, Bendtsen C, Gudelj I (2016). Kinase inhibition leads to hormesis in a dual phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle. PLoS Comput. Biol., 12(11): e1005216.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005216