Disc4All is a Training network to advance integrated computational simulations in translational medicine, applied to intervertebral disc degeneration. It aims to integrate available data and computational simulations on back pain caused by intervertebral disc degeneration, with a multidisciplinary translational research approach. On the one hand, population cohort data will be exploited to generate matching sets of molecular profiles and intervertebral disc phenotypes. On the other hand, cell and organ culture laboratory experiments will be used to pinpoint the most likely relationships among molecular profiles and cell microenvironments. Computer simulations will integrate these population and experimental data, to predict the cell microenvironments through multiscale modelling, and to extract causality between the emergence of specific molecular activity and specific intervertebral disc phenotypes. Finally, data mining and artificial intelligence techniques will generate interpretable correlation models between measurable clinical data and unmeasurable, yet predicted, key regulators of cell and molecular activities. The final output shall be the identification of rational patient-specific maps of concurring risk factors. Disc4All will provide a new generation of professionals with international mobility, equipped with unique sets of skills for career developments in translational research applied to multifactorial disorders.

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