Parameter identification in a mathematical model of HIV infection with drug therapy

Abstract

Parameter identification problems are frequently occurring within biomedical applications. These problems are often ill-posed, and thus challenging to solve numerically. Previously, it has been suggested that minimization of the Tikhonov functional using a time-adaptive nite element method could be useful for determining the drug efficacy for treatment of HIV infection. In this thesis, the suggested method was implemented and numerically tested in MATLAB. The results, however, suggested that the method might be unsuitable for these kinds of problems; instead, elementary methods were found to be more plausible. The methods presented in the thesis can eventually be used by clinicians to determine the drug-response for each treated individual. The exact knowledge of the personal drug efficacy can aid in the determination of the most suitable drug as well as the most optimal dose for each individual, in the long run resulting in a personalized treatment with maximum efficacy and minimum adverse drug reactions.