Towards a multiscale model of colorectal cancer

Figure 2 Prototype multiscale model of the gut. Subcellular, cellular and tissue elements are represented in black, grey and white boxes, respectively. The schematic shows possible interactions and feed-back loops coupling the different levels of organisation and illustrates the complexity of the biological system. An additional challenge in building such multiscale models is coupling phenomena that act on very short time scales (e.g. the diffusion of metabolites and signalling molecules in the extracellular medium) with processes that occur on longer time scales (e.g. tumour growth).