In different contexts we are challenged by multi-scale networks where infrastructures composed by different technological layers are interoperating with the social component that drives their use and development. Examples are provided by the Internet, the social Web, the new WiFi communication technologies and transportation and mobility infrastructures. The multi-scale nature and complexity of these techno-social networks are crucial features in the understanding of these systems and the dynamical processes occurring on top of them. We will discuss the central statistical features of these networks and their impact on epidemic, contagion and spreading processes in both the biological world and the ITC domain. We will present the development of realistic computational models based on the network paradigm and the reaction–diffusion processes framework that allows their theoretical understanding. Finally we will analyze the central role of complex networks thinking in the definition of predictive large scale computational approaches for the modeling of emergent disease spreading.