TIP
February 2025 in Science at our faculty
We bring you a selection of the most interesting things in science and research at our faculty in the shortest month of 2025
Improving Cancer Treatment: The Potential of Virtual Twins in Immunotherapy
A diverse team initiated the CERTAINTY research project in December 2023, aiming to develop a virtual twin that could enhance personalized cancer immunotherapies. Led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI, this collaboration with partners from science, industry, and healthcare endeavors to create a virtual twin to revolutionize cancer treatment. FM MU is one of the partners in the project funded by the EU.
Cancer immunotherapies, alongside traditional methods like surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, have become a crucial aspect of medical oncology. Personalized treatments like CAR-T cell therapy offer precise patient profiling, showcasing significant advantages.
CERTAINTY project involves collecting and processing extensive clinical, imaging, molecular, and cellular data for individual patients. Combining these data into a digital representation—a virtual twin—allows for regular updates using various data points. By analyzing comparative data from patients with similar profiles, the virtual twin can simulate disease progression and assess different treatment options.
The project focuses on adapting concepts from cardiovascular disease models to develop modules for cancer patients undergoing CAR-T cell therapies. This advancement aims to aid doctors in selecting optimal therapies and optimizing the use of expensive drugs, ultimately lessening the burden on healthcare systems.
Initially, the virtual twin will concentrate on multiple myeloma, aiming to reflect the unique pathophysiology of patients eligible for or undergoing cellular immunotherapies. Emphasis is placed on integrating molecular patterns into the digital representation. Technologies like big data processing, machine learning, and personalized in vitro models are pivotal in this development.
Additionally, socio-economic factors influencing disease progression are being considered, along with future patient applications.
Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University, with its Centre of Excellence CREATIC is a proud partner in this initiative, contributing to assessing the model's socio-economic impact and engaging various stakeholders, including patients.
Regina Demlová, director of CREATIC, explains: “We will coordinate the socio-economic impact of the model and the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including patients. CREATICs' data science unit will also be involved in prognostic and predictive modeling of virtual twins.”
This EU-funded consortium, "CERTAINTY - A cellular immunotherapy virtual twin for personalized cancer treatment," will receive almost EUR 10 million over the next 4.5 years.
Consortium partners:
- Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany: Fraunhofer IZI (project coordination), Fraunhofer SCAI, Fraunhofer IMW
- University of Leipzig Medical Center, Germany
- Singleron Biotechnologies GmbH, Germany
- Collaborate Project Management, Germany
- Myeloma Patients Europe AISBL, Belgium
- TriNetX Oncology GmbH, Germany
- Masaryk University, Czech Republic
- Information Technology for Translational Medicine, Luxembourg
- University Hospital of Würzburg, Germany
- Institut Curie, France
- University of Namur, Belgium
- Universitair Medisch Centrum (UMC) Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
- European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), The Netherlands
- HealthTree Foundation, USA
- Roche Pharma AG, Switzerland
