Innovative 'Immune Digital Twins' Pave the Way for Safer Drug Testing and Personalized Medicine

An ambitious international initiative is underway to develop 'immune digital twins'—virtual, dynamic models of the human immune system—that can simulate how individuals respond to various drugs and treatments. Led by the Research Data Alliance Building Immune Digital Twins Working Group (RDA-BIDT WG), which includes over 100 experts from 22 countries and is chaired by Professor Anna Niarakis of the University of Toulouse, this project aims to address longstanding challenges in immunology and infectious disease management.

Digital twins, which are sophisticated virtual representations of physical systems, have already proven successful in engineering and industries. In healthcare, their applications include cardiovascular diagnostics and diabetes management systems like artificial pancreas devices. Extending this concept, the immune digital twin offers a groundbreaking approach to personalized medicine: enabling clinicians and researchers to predict how with a specific patient's immune system might react to therapy without exposing the patient to potential risks.

Creating an immune digital twin is highly complex because the human immune system is a highly intricate and adaptable network of cells and molecules. Accurately capturing a person's immune state in real time faces hurdles such as data incompatibility and the challenge of integrating diverse data types. To overcome these obstacles, the project fosters collaboration among immunologists, clinicians, computational biologists, engineers, and ethicists, emphasizing a transdisciplinary approach.

The overarching goal of the RDA is to establish a social and technical infrastructure that reduces barriers to data sharing, fueling progress in personalized immunology. This initiative represents a crucial step toward safer, more effective treatments and a deeper understanding of immune responses. For more details, refer to the publication by Niarakis et al., titled 'Building Immune Digital Twins: An International and Transdisciplinary Community Effort' (ImmunoInformatics, 2025).

source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-immune-digital-twins-simulate-drug.html