Alexander Anderson

Alexander R. A. "Sandy" Anderson is a Scottish mathematical biologist and cancer researcher known for contributions to mathematical oncology, particularly in the development of multiscale and hybrid modeling approaches to tumor growth, invasion, and treatment response.

Mathematical oncology—the application of mathematical and computational modeling to cancer—has emerged as an interdisciplinary field integrating biology, physics, and clinical oncology.

He is Chair of the Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute.

Early life and education

Anderson studied mathematical biology at the University of Dundee, where he obtained his MSc and PhD.

Research

Mathematical oncology

Mathematical oncology applies quantitative and computational approaches to understand cancer development, progression, and treatment response.

Integrative mathematical oncology

In 2008, Anderson co-authored a Nature Reviews Cancer article introducing the concept of integrative mathematical oncology, which emphasizes the combination of mathematical modeling with experimental and clinical data to produce predictive models of cancer progression and treatment response.

These approaches combine mechanistic understanding of tumor biology with machine learning methods to address challenges such as high-dimensional clinical data and complex, multiscale dynamics.

Publications and impact

Anderson has authored numerous publications in mathematical biology and oncology, with work spanning hybrid modeling, tumor evolution, and treatment optimization. Mathematical modeling approaches have been described as contributing to the development of predictive and quantitative frameworks in cancer research. for his work on tumour invasion . He served as a permanent member of the NIH Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems (MABS) study section from 2014 to 2018. He was elected a Fellow of the Society for Mathematical Biology in 2019 and served as its President from 2019 to 2021 as well as being on the Board of Directors from 2012 to 2016. In 2020 he was named the W. Jack Pledger Researcher of the Year at Moffitt Cancer Center, an award voted for by fellow Moffitt scientists.

Selected publications

Anderson ARA, Chaplain MAJ. Continuous and discrete mathematical models of tumor-induced angiogenesis. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology (1998). Anderson ARA. A hybrid mathematical model of solid tumour invasion. Mathematical Medicine and Biology (2005). Anderson ARA, Quaranta V. Integrative mathematical oncology. Nature Reviews Cancer (2008). Bravo RR et al., Anderson ARA. A hybrid automata library for hybrid modeling. PLOS Computational Biology (2020).