Thrombus formation in flowing blood is a complex time- and space-dependent process of
cell adhesion and fibrin gel formation controlled by huge intricate networks of
biochemical reactions. This combination of complex biochemistry, non-Newtonian
hydrodynamics, and transport processes makes thrombosis difficult to understand. That is
why numerous attempts to use mathematical modeling for this purpose were undertaken during
the last decade. In particular, recent years witnessed something of a transition from the
“systems biology” to the “systems pharmacology/systems medicine” stage: computational
modeling is being increasingly applied to practical problems such as drug development,
investigation of particular events underlying disease, analysis of the mechanism(s) of
drug’s action, determining an optimal dosing protocols, etc. Here we review recent
advances and challenges in our understanding of thrombus formation.