Filenews 23 January 2021 - by Evangelia Sizopoulou
Using Digital Twins and Artificial Intelligence (AI) early prediction and prevention of complex and multifactorial diseases, including COVID-19, is attempted.
This particularly important research area deals with a programme which has already started on 1 January and is to be developed within the next four years, in the wider context of the latest phase of the European Research Council's FET (Future Emerging Technologies) pilot programme. The main objective of the programme is to develop a multi-thematic scientific community that will develop into a dynamic European ecosystem around this emerging technology.
In the programme participates and leads the actions related to the construction of the European ecosystem for the application of Digital Twins in Health, the Cypriot scientist, Andreani Odysseus, Director of Biomedical Research and head of the interdisciplinary team of Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology in the organization Research and Development OF OPOS-Iasis.
This pilot project consists of two tools:
>> The Pathfinder programme, which hatches innovative approaches capable of creating new markets and economic models, results in the development of radical and ground-breaking innovation, with a low degree of technological readiness that can only go as far as developing a technological model.
>> The Accelerator programme, which essentially accelerates the transfer of innovation to the market, finances high-risk innovations with the potential to create new markets and concerns projects of high technological readiness up to and from market entry and consolidation.
The aim of the participation of Dr Ulysses' team is to highlight the ability of small groups from the Cypriot research and innovation ecosystem to form emerging areas of high technology and long-term strategy at trans-European level. Especially when these technologies apply to complex and multidimensional health problems and bio-medical sciences, such as COVID-19.
As far as this particular program is concerned, dr. Ulysses said it is one of only three funded through a highly competitive process, with the central goal of developing and implementing Digital Twins to address medical challenges. DIGIPREDICT refers to Digital Twins, developing with artificial intelligence to predict disease progression and the need for early intervention in infectious and cardiovascular diseases, in addition to COVID-19. Ten teams from six countries, and for the first time a team from Cyprus participate in the most competitive program of Horizon 2020, FETProactive, which defines policies and strategies with a view to decades.
According to Dr Ulysses, DIGIPREDICT introduces the first of its kind Digital Artificial Intelligence Duo, designed, developed and calibrated on laboratory tests, based on the interaction between digital biomarkers, organ-in-microchips and artificial intelligence in cutting-edge technologies, with the aim of identifying a specific digital footprint potential of complex disease progression and building assistive tools for medical personnel and patients. "We will combine scientific and technological excellence in multiple sciences and fields with the aim of building a cross-thematic community in Europe focusing on Digital Twins," says Dr. Ulysses, focusing on early detection and personalized treatment. As he explained, "patients with high-risk COVID-19 will be able to be identified in a timely manner by digital fingerprints of complex disease progression and closely monitored to allow early intervention with the most appropriate treatment regimen for each patient individually".
The Digital Duo is a virtual representation of a product. It can be used for design, simulation, monitoring, optimization in broader areas of technology. It is the exact virtual model of a machine or production unit. It displays their development throughout a life cycle and allows operators to intervene for optimization depending on external factors, such as dealing with future health crises, modelling grids in a city or related networks.
According to the scientist, the interaction between virus infections, host response, development (pro) inflammation and cardiovascular damage in COVID-19 is not yet sufficiently understood, making it difficult to predict which patients will remain with mild symptoms and who will develop rapidly with multi-organic deficiency. "The solution provided by our research project is a high-tech personalized computational and physical tool that acts as a potential vehicle of the twin based on cutting-edge artificial intelligence and which represents patho-physiology specific to each patient, with built-in capabilities to prevent disease progression, which focuses on COVID-19 but has the potential to be applied beyond that" , says Dr Odysseos.
"The ultimate goal," he continues, "is to identify and document patient-specific dynamic digital fingerprints of a complex disease condition and to enable its progression to be predicted as a basis for supportive tools for doctors, nurses and patients. Using and improving cutting-edge technologies in artificial organs in microchips and digital biomarkers, to study physiology and biomarkers in the intercellular space, we will accurately measure the response to viral infections."
In conclusion, dr. Ulysses stresses the impact that has already begun to emerge from this new medical challenge on the reshaping of academic and research on an international scale. "COVID-19 and research and innovation on this already determine the academic excellence and ranking of universities worldwide based on Times Higher Education. In the top ten where US universities continue to dominate and while other British universities have fallen sharply, Oxford University is ranked first this year, which obviously reflects the development of the well-known vaccine and the research activities behind it. At the same time, Asian universities are soaring, with China's Tsinghua making it into the top 20 for the first time. The impact is already evident and we need to be ready because a lot is going to change. And the prevalence of American and Chinese universities obviously reflects the massive and seamless, but mostly well-targeted, funding for COVID-19. The DIGIPEDICT programme and the establishment of the European ecosystem around it is our response to this great challenge," he concludes.
