517 Multi-scale Models in Biomechanics and Mechanobiology

 

The aim of the mini-symposium is to focus on the inherent multiscale nature of the interplay between mechanics and biology and its elucidation through modeling. It is now established that computational tools are indispensable to augment experimental techniques for the analysis of complex biosystems and increase the success rates of clinical interventions and therapeutic effectiveness. Biological systems are among the most complex physical systems, with phenomena that can only be explained considering the enormous range of length and time scales involved. At the atomistic level, the dynamics of biomolecules is stochastic and poses significant computational challenges. At the cellular level, a multitude of molecular entities, many of which unidentified, interact and organize in space and time, from which nonequilibrium physiological processes emerge at the tissue and organ levels. While vast knowledge is accumulating for any given biological system, establishing quantitative relations between systems defined at different scales requires an integrative approach such as multiscale modeling. Topics of interest in this minisymposium include novel computational techniques and/or modeling results that link at least two spatial or temporal scales which explain the role of mechanics in biological phenomena.