Utilizing interdisciplinary approaches to study physiological and pathological processes: A conversation with Ning Wei
- NITMB
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
The NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology comprises a wide array of investigators driving innovation at the interface of mathematics and biology. NSF-Simons NITMB Affiliate Members bring unique perspectives vital for developing new mathematics and inspiring biological discovery. One such NITMB Affiliate Member expanding our understanding of biological functions with mathematical physiology is Ning Wei.
Ning Wei is an assistant professor of mathematics at Purdue University. Wei’s research focuses on mathematical physiology, where she uses interdisciplinary approaches to study physiological and pathological processes in the heart, kidneys, and lungs.
We spoke with Ning Wei to learn more about her research, the potential medical and biomedical implications of this work, and how NITMB can help drive innovation in these areas.
What is a big question you’ve been asking throughout your research?
“A central question in my research is how electrical and biochemical interactions across multiple spatial and temporal scales give rise to coordinated physiological function and, when disrupted, to disease. My work focuses on mathematical physiology, where I use interdisciplinary approaches to study physiological and pathological processes in the heart, kidneys, and lungs. I develop mechanistic and data-driven models that integrate numerical simulation, analytical methods, and experimental data to uncover underlying biological mechanisms. Through collaborations with researchers in medical schools and biomedical engineering, my work aims to provide predictive insights that can inform treatment strategies and support clinical decision-making.”
What disciplines does your research integrate?
“My research integrates applied mathematics, physiology, biomedical engineering, and computational science. I combine mathematical modeling, numerical and analytical methods, and data-driven approaches to study electrophysiology and multiscale physiological processes in organs such as the heart, kidneys, and lungs.”
Where do you find inspiration?
“I find inspiration from interdisciplinary collaborations with experimentalists, clinicians, and biomedical engineers. Working closely with researchers who study physiological systems from different perspectives often reveals new questions that can be explored through mathematical modeling. I am also inspired by the challenge of using mathematics to better understand complex biological systems and potentially contribute to improvements in human health.”
What aspects of your work could be interesting to mathematicians or applied to biology?
“The physiological systems I study involve complex interactions across multiple spatial and temporal scales, which raise challenging mathematical questions related to nonlinear dynamics and multiscale modeling. These systems raise fundamental mathematical challenges that require new analytical and computational approaches to understand emergent behavior in complex biological systems. One of the central questions in my research is how microscopic cellular interactions influence large-scale physiological behavior, such as electrical conduction and rhythm dynamics in the cardiovascular system. For mathematicians, this raises fundamental questions about multiscale coupling, nonlinear wave propagation, and stability in high-dimensional dynamical systems. For biologists and clinicians, understanding these mechanisms can help explain how disruptions at the cellular level led to pathological conditions such as arrhythmias or cardiovascular dysfunction. More broadly, these questions motivate the development of new analytical frameworks for multiscale excitable systems. Understanding these mechanisms not only advances mathematical theory but may also provide new insights into cardiac arrhythmias and other disorders of excitable tissues.”
What excites you about NITMB?
“What excites me most about the mission of NITMB is its goal of building a national community that connects mathematics to fundamental problems in biology. Many of the systems I study—such as cardiac and renal electrophysiology, lung infection, and emerging questions in neuroscience—involve complex interactions across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Addressing these problems requires close collaboration between mathematicians, experimentalists, and clinicians, which aligns very well with the interdisciplinary environment that NITMB aims to foster. By bringing together researchers from different disciplines, NITMB can help generate new collaborations and expose mathematical models to experimental data and biological questions that we might not otherwise encounter. Access to this broader network will help accelerate the development of new mathematical frameworks for understanding complex physiological systems, which is a central goal of my research.”
What career achievement are you most proud of?
“One achievement I am particularly proud of is advancing the mathematical and physiological understanding of ephaptic coupling (EpC), an electric–field–mediated interaction that occurs in narrow extracellular spaces between neighboring cells. Ephaptic interactions have been experimentally observed in neural systems and have been proposed as a potential mechanism that may influence cardiac electrical conduction, providing a framework to study how microscopic extracellular interactions affect macroscopic electrical dynamics in excitable tissues. In my work, we developed physiologically detailed models to investigate how nanoscale extracellular interactions influence cardiac electrical conduction and the initiation, dynamics, and termination of cardiac arrhythmias. Our simulations suggest that ephaptic interactions can significantly influence reentrant dynamics and may exert anti-arrhythmic effects by inhibiting the initiation of reentry and facilitating its termination. In collaboration with Dr. McCauley’s lab at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine, we demonstrated experimentally and computationally that carbon nanotube fibers can terminate reentry in ischemic atrial tissue. Our recent simulations further suggest that the presence of EpC may increase the probability of termination while reducing sensitivity to activation timing. In summary, EpC provides a unique framework for studying how microscopic electrical interactions influence macroscopic wave propagation in excitable tissues of both the heart and the brain. These questions have important implications for mathematics, biology, and potentially clinical applications.”
Outside of your research, what other interests do you have?
“Outside of my research, I enjoy music and art. I learned to play the violin when I was young and recently started picking it up again after many years. I also enjoy drawing and spending time outdoors, especially hiking. I enjoy traveling with my family and learning about different cultures. Recently, I have also been playing tennis with my daughter, which has become one of my favorite ways to relax.”
What are you hoping to work on in the future?
“One area I am currently exploring is modeling the impact of cancer treatments on the cardiovascular system, including both vascular pathologies such as atherosclerosis and cardiac electrophysiology, particularly electrical wave propagation and arrhythmia dynamics. This research falls within the emerging interdisciplinary field of cardio-oncology and raises interesting mathematical questions related to nonlinear wave propagation and multiscale dynamics in cardiovascular systems. I am also interested in studying ephaptic interactions between neurons in both the central and peripheral nervous systems. These mechanisms may play important roles in neurological phenomena such as epilepsy, cognitive processes including memory, and pain signaling. I plan to investigate these problems using a combination of numerical simulations and mathematical analysis. In addition, I am interested in developing digital twin models of the heart that integrate physiological modeling with patient-specific data such as ECG and MRI. Such models could help build personalized computational frameworks for understanding cardiac function and disease. More broadly, I am eager to build new collaborations with experimental researchers in cardiac physiology and neuroscience, as well as with data scientists who can help integrate large-scale biological data into mathematical models.”
Is there anything else you would like the NITMB community to know about you?
“One theme that runs through much of my work is trying to understand how microscopic physiological mechanisms give rise to large-scale electrical dynamics in biological systems. Questions of this type naturally require both mathematical analysis and close interaction with experimental and clinical observations. I enjoy working at this interface, where biological questions motivate new mathematical ideas and mathematical tools help uncover the mechanisms underlying complex physiological phenomena.”
More information on Professor Wei’s work is available on Ning Wei’s website, where she describes current research projects, collaborations, and service activities. Ning Wei’s publications are also available on Google Scholar and ORCID.