Multiscale Modeling: Concepts, Technologies, and Use Cases in Immunology

In today's Big Data era, computing tools and techniques help revolutionize immunological research in a meaningful way that is also shifting paradigm from top-down or bottom-up approaches to a middle-out approach. The latter is based on conceptualizing models and tools at the level that provides the richest data and connecting that to higher or lower levels for comprehensive integrated systems. In essence, building large multiscale models are an emerging trend mainly because these comprehensive models can be useful in providing great opportunities for model-driven knowledge discoveries and hypothesis generation that are clinically and pharmacologically relevant. In this chapter, we will highlight the technological advances that drive cutting-edge immune-informatics practices in a systems immunology research cycle. We present our next-generation multiscale modeling (MSM) technology, ENteric Immune Simulator (ENISI) MSM, a tool that integrates ordinary differential equation, partial differential equation, and agent-based modeling technologies and four spatiotemporal scales. ENISI MSM is a tool designed for modeling the mucosal immune responses that can simulate 10⁸-10⁹ cells in high-performance simulations.