During the development of the enteric (intestinal) nervous system, neural crest cells must first migrate into and colonise the entire gut from stomach to anal end. The migratory precursor neural crest cells change type and differentiate into neurons and glia cells. These cells form the enteric nervous system, which gives rise to normal gut function and peristaltic contraction. Failure of the neural crest cells to invade the whole gut results in a lack of neurons in a length of the terminal intestine. This potentially fatal condition, marked by intractable constipation, is called Hirschsprung's Disease. The interplay between cell migration, cell proliferation, cell differentiation and embryonic gut growth are important to the success of the neural crest cell colonisation process.

Mathematical modelling provides insight into how complex biological processes may be coupled to produce experimentally observed behaviour. Our models of the neural crest colonisation have generated experimentally testable predictions that have been used to verify the validity of the models. Further challenges in modelling this fascinating developmental system will be discussed.