Student
Shahzeb Raja Noureen

Shahzeb attended the University of Greenwich and graduated in Mathematics in 2018.

Shahzeb attended the University of Greenwich and graduated in Mathematics in 2018. At Greenwich, he worked on problems in different areas within applied maths including population dynamics and Brownian motion. In particular, his dissertation revolved around the modelling of random motion of particles in fluid. Formerly a stats “hater”, he learnt to love stats by the time of graduation and straight after the BSc, started his MSc in Mathematics at the Queen Mary University of London with a particular focus on probability and random processes. He used this opportunity to explore different applications of statistics and stochastic processes to real-life systems. In particular, his dissertation involved modelling future decisions dependent on extreme experiences of individuals. He is now interested in biological applications of mathematics. Outside of study, Shahzeb likes to read, bake, study languages, play badminton and is very keen about learning to play tennis.

Research project title:
Stochastic Modelling of Migration and Proliferation of Melanoblast Neural Crest Cells in Mammals

Supervisor(s):
Kit Yates, Tim Rogers

Project description:
Piebaldism is a condition which occurs when an animal’s fur, hair or skin lacks pigmentation in patches, typically at the ventral (front) side of the body, due to the absence of 17pigment-producing cells (melanocytes). The process responsible for this discolouration happens during the early stages of embryonic development. Early melanocyte precursors known as melanoblasts (one sub-type of a whole family of cells of developmental origin known as neural crest cells) which originate towards the dorsal (back) end of the embryo are responsible for giving the skin its colour. During the development of the embryo, these cells travel from the back towards the front of the body and as they do so, they divide to create daughter cells which themselves can migrate and divide. Research suggests that a piebald phenotype in mice is a result of the melanoblast neural crests cells failing to reach the dorsal epidermis (front region of the skin). It was originally assumed that this happens due to slow diffusion of melanoblasts but recent evidence suggests that in fact, the reason is the slower proliferation of these cells rather than the decreased rate of migration. The slow proliferation has been linked to mutations in the kit gene. Other types of neural crests cells are responsible for other essential developmental processes in mammals and erroneous proliferation or migration in these cells can result in developmental defects such as deafness, heart problems and even cancer. Shahzeb is exploring the proliferation and movement of the melanoblast neural crest cells using agent-based methods, both on- and off-lattice and on a uniformly growing domain. He aims to develop multistage models that can relate the cell-cycle stages to other migratory parameters and generate more realistic cell-cycle time distributions. The multistage models, developed on- and off-lattice, will allow him to examine the effects of relatedness between cells and build models where individual cell properties are inherited by daughter cells. He is investigating the importance of distinct melanoblast sub-populations during epidermal colonisation and develop methods of modelling clonal behaviour.