Karen Mary Page M.A., D.Phil.
Personal Details
Address:
Department of Mathematics
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
Email:
kpage@math.ucl.ac.uk
Tel:
020 7679 3683
Date of Birth: 08/06/1974
Nationality: British
Academic Employment
2006-present Department of Mathematics, University College London
 Lecturer in Mathematical Biology
2001-2006
Department of Computer Science, University College London
 Joint Research Councils (EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC) Lecturer in Bioinformatics
1999-2001
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA
 Postdoctoral Fellow in Theoretical Biology working with Prof. Martin Nowak
Education and Qualifications
1996-1999
Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford
 DPhil in Mathematical Biology 1999 with Profs. Philip Maini, Claudio Stern and
Dr. Nick Monk
1992-1996
Queens’ College, Cambridge
 MA Mathematics 1999
 Cambridge Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics and Theoretical
Physics (Part III Mathematics Tripos): Distinction 1996
 BA (Hons) 1st class Mathematics 1995 (1sts in all three years of Mathematics
Tripos. Came in the top ten in final examinations.)
Academic Awards
 DPhil in Mathematical Biology:
College Scholarship 1997
Wellcome Trust Prize Research Studentship 1996-1999
 Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics:
College Prize 1996
 Cambridge Mathematics Tripos:
Part II: Foundation Scholarship 1995; Part IB: Foundation Scholarship 1994;
Part IA: College Exhibition, Subject Prize 1993
 Bronze medallist in International Mathematical Olympiad, Moscow 1992
 Gold medallist, finalist and Women’s Prize in National Physics Olympiad 1992
Research
 Present research interests: mathematical and computational modelling of cancer
(including dormancy and immunotherapy (9,10,11), genetic instability in
tumorigenesis (1,5), angiogenesis (3,9) and hypoxia), cellular signalling
(3,7,8,9,17), gene networks and systems biology. Continuing interest in
evolutionary dynamics (14,16,18), evolutionary game theory and pattern
formation in development.
 Established collaborations with experimental biologists in Texas to build
mathematical models of cancer immunotherapy (10,11) and scientists at Santa Fe
Institute (2,17), Cancer Research UK (1, joint supervision of PhD students), Royal
Free Hospital UCL (joint supervision of Masters projects) and the National
Institute of Medical Research (grant recently funded). Engaged in collaborative
research in systems biology with multidisciplinary teams across departments in
UCL .
 At the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, published research papers in
evolutionary game theory and evolutionary dynamics (19,22,23). The research
behind these papers involved modelling animal and human behaviour using
simple mathematical frameworks, performing computer simulations of the
evolutionary dynamics of populations, developing new mathematical methods for
describing the evolution of non-standard games and establishing a single unifying
mathematical framework connecting formalisms from various different branches
of evolutionary theory from game theory to population genetics.
 The research for my DPhil led to a thesis entitled “Mathematical Models in
Embryology: the Selection, Regulation and Speed of Formation of Patterns” and
also to a number of papers in refereed journals (12,15,20).
Research management
 Supervised the work of RA Dr Tomas Alarcon, employed on EPSRC grant (see
below), leading to papers in refereed journals.
 Currently supervising the work of Dr Anna Chernova employed on grant
080630/Z/06/A (see section below).
 Primary research supervisor for three PhD students from the Centre for
Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology
(CoMPLEX) programme at UCL. Secondary (physical sciences) supervisor for
fourth CoMPLEX PhD student (PhD completed).
Grants
 Awarded Wellcome Trust grant 080630/Z/06/A (personal share £144,181.00) as
joint Principal Investigator with James Briscoe at NIMR to model the
establishment and interpretation of the Shh morphogen gradient in the developing
vertebrate neural tube (start pending).
Publications
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C. Hornsby, K.M. Page and I.P.M. Tomlinson (2007) The in vivo rate of
somatic APC mutation, in preparation.
T. Graham, S.A.C. MacDonald, K. M. Page, I. P. M. Tomlinson and
N. A. Wright (2007) A probabilistic model of mitochondrial DNA mutations
and crypt fission in human colonic crypts, in preparation.
L. Willis, T. Alarcon and K.M. Page (2007) Stochastic models of dormancy
in breast cancer, in preparation.
A.M. Jones, C. Thirlwell, K. M. Howarth, T. Graham, W. Chambers, S.
Segditsas, K. M. Page, R. K.S. Phillips, H. J.W. Thomas, O. M. Sieber, E. J.
Sawyer, I. P.M. Tomlinson (2007) Analysis of copy number changes
suggests chromosomal instability in a minority of large colorectal adenomas,
submitted.
C. Hornsby, K. M. Page and I. P. M. Tomlinson (2007) What can we learn
from the population incidence of cancer? Armitage and Doll revisited,
submitted.
D. C. Krakauer and K. M. Page (2007) Competitive niche construction, in
preparation.
D. C. Krakauer, K. M. Page and J. C. Flack (2007) The social contagion of
aggression and the immunology of policing behaviour, in preparation.
T. Alarcon and K. M. Page (2007) Perfect and imperfect adaptation in the
cellular response to receptor tyrosine kinase inactivation, submitted.
T. Graham, K. M. Page and D. Shibata (2007) Invasion of the mutants: stem
cell division in the Drosophila testes, in preparation.
K. M. Page (2007) Up a gear? The significance of an elevated mutation rate
in tumorigenesis, Physics of Life Reviews, vol. 4, 116-127.
K. M. Page, N. A. M. Monk and P. K. Maini (2007) Speed of reactiondiffusion in embryogenesis, Phys Rev E, 76, 011902.
T. Alarcon and K. M. Page (2007) Mathematical models of the VEGF
receptor and its role in cancer therapy, J. R. Soc. Interface, vol. 4, 283-304.
O. Cinquin and K. M. Page (2006) Generalized, switch-like competitive
heterodimerization networks, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology vol. 69, 483494.
T. Alarcon and K. M. Page (2006) Stochastic models of receptor
oligomerization by bivalent ligand, J. R. Soc. Interface, vol. 3, 545-559.
T. Alarcon, R. Marches and K. M. Page (2006) Mathematical models of the
fate of lymphoma B cells after antigen receptor ligation with specific
antibodies Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 240, 54-71.
K. M. Page and J. W. Uhr (2005) Mathematical models of cancer dormancy,
Leukemia and Lymphoma, vol. 46, 313-327.
K. M. Page, N. A. M. Monk and P. K. Maini (2005) Complex pattern
formation in reaction-diffusion systems with spatially varying parameters,
Physica D, vol. 202, 95-115.
K. M. Page (2004) Language learning: How much evidence does a child
need in order to learn to speak grammatically?, Bulletin of Mathematical
Biology, vol. 66, 651-662.
K. M. Page (2003) Unifying evolutionary dynamics and a mathematical
definition of selection, Proceedings of 5th European Conference on
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Mathematical Modelling and Computing in Biology and Medicine 2002, ed.
V. Capasso, 303-309, MIRIAM, Milan.
K. Page, N. A. M. Monk and P. K. Maini (2003) Pattern formation in
spatially heterogeneous Turing reaction-diffusion models, Physica D, vol.
181, 80-101.
K. M. Page and M. A. Nowak (2002) Unifying evolutionary dynamics,
Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 219, 93-98.
D. C. Krakauer, K. M. Page and S. Sealfon (2002) Module dynamics of the
GnRH signal transduction network, Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 218,
457-470.
K. M. Page and M. A. Nowak (2002) Empathy leads to fairness, Bulletin of
Mathematical Biology, vol. 64, 1101-1116.
K. M. Page and M. A. Nowak (2001) A generalized adaptive dynamics
framework can describe the evolutionary Ultimatum Game, Journal of
Theoretical Biology, vol. 209, 173-179.
K. M. Page, P. K. Maini, N. A. M. Monk and C. D. Stern (2001) A model of
primitive streak initiation in the chick embryo, Journal of Theoretical
Biology, vol. 208, 419-438.
D. Wodarz, K. M. Page, R. A. Arnaout, A. R. Thomsen, J. D. Lifsen and M.
A. Nowak (2000) A new theory of CTL memory: implications for HIV
treatment, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, vol. 355, 329-344.
M. A. Nowak, K. M. Page and K. Sigmund (2000) Fairness versus reason in
the Ultimatum Game, Science, vol. 289, 1773-1775.
K. M. Page, M. A. Nowak and K. Sigmund (2000) The spatial Ultimatum
Game, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B, vol. 267, 2177-2182.