What exactly is Multiscale Modeling??

Current IMAG definition:

Multiscale, biomedical modeling uses mathematics and computation to represent and simulate a physiological system at more than one biological scale. Biological scales include atomic, molecular, molecular complexes, sub-cellular, cellular, multi-cell systems, tissue, organ, multi-organ systems, organism, population, and behavior. These multiscale biomedical models may also include dynamical processes which span multiple time and length scales.

Comments

  • The definition is very good but it all depends how we interpret

"mathematics" - some people may choose to think that algebraic equations also provide length scales, which is not true, no gradients!

 

  • Whereas technically “multiscale biological modeling” might be defined simply by more than one scale being calculated simultaneously in the model, I think that this definition is insufficient. If function can be learned by modeling each scale separately with only an indirect connection between them (e.g., in the form of boundary conditions), is a calculation of the two scales simultaneously truly "multi scale"? Technically, I suppose yes, but functionally I would say no. In my view, multiscale modeling should include the requirement that the multiple scales represented in the model interact at a level that the function would be incomplete or inadequate without such direct interaction.

 

 

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