Modeling of Disease: Molecular Level, Overview

Definition

Though molecular and cellular level modeling is the first step in the long ladder of multiscale modeling for clinical translational application, it may be regarded as the critical scale: “Where the rubber meets the road.” The idiom from automotive engineering refers to the critical endpoint where all the ancillary engineering – fuel system, chassis, pistons, etc. – is finally tested. In the realm of translation, this point comes when we translate basic research results to the clinical setting. The physician (though not the surgeon) intervenes at the molecular scale, using pharmacological agents to alter physiological activity only observed at far higher scales: the macroscopic realms of clinical tests and of signs and symptoms. Given the vast scale gap between molecular treatments and macroscopic outcome, there is enormous difficulty in understanding causal relations, so as to design better drugs and better drug combinations. Multiscale modeling can help make these...