Using mathematical modelling as a virtual microscope to support biomedical research

This chapter will explain what kind of support mathematics can give to biology and medicine. In order to explain the concepts in practice cell migration is used as a specific example. This phenomenon is of great biomedical interest because it is a fundamental phenomenon both in physiological (e.g. wound healing, immune response) and pathological processes (e.g. chronic inflammation, detachment of metastasis and related tissue invasion). Also a key feature of any artificial system aimed at mimicking biological structures is to allow and enhance cell migration on or inside it. At the same time anti-cancer treatment can become more efficient blocking cell’s capability to migrate towards distant sites and invade different organs.