TWINs4RA
Scheda del progetto
Dr. Camilla Barbero Mazzucca
Dr. Marco Dossena
Healthcare is undergoing a transformation thanks to digital innovation, offering new technologies to improve prevention, care, economic and environmental sustainability. Digital twins of individual organs, personalized models updated with medical data and sensors, represent an innovation for personalized healthcare. Organ-on-chips (OoCs) simulate organ activities in vitro, contributing to the creation of both digital and biological twins.
The TWINs4RA project aims to develop a microfluidic platform for the 3D culture of joint tissues, focusing on the synovium and synovial fluid, while also integrating the immune system. The platform will use organ-on-chips and digital twins to create personalized disease models, enabling personalized clinical trials. The digital twin, powered by data from the biological twin through AI and machine learning, will help predict each patient’s therapeutic response.
Contact:
Contact person
Annalisa Chiocchetti
Email
annalisa.chiocchetti@med.uniupo.it ; info@aitwin.it
Tel
+39 3492951764
The overall goal of TWINs4RA is to develop a pair of twins, one biological and one digital, for personalized treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The digital twin, powered by data from the biological twin, will allow the prediction of each subject's response to a range of drugs, helping to identify the best option for each patient. Additionally, the platform will effectively model both healthy and diseased synovia, paving the way for new pathophysiological studies on joint-related clinical conditions beyond RA.
The project introduces three main innovations: by using the digital twin, it will be possible to model the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and identify new biomarkers and networks, aiding the discovery of new therapeutic targets and improving treatment strategies; the biological twin of vascularized synovia will represent an effective model for the pharmaceutical market, allowing for the testing of repositioned drugs and new compounds, while facilitating the adoption of the 3Rs principle (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) by reducing the number of patients needed for clinical trials; starting from a patient's biopsy, it will be possible to compare the synovium's response to all available drugs within 1-2 months of the sample, enabling the identification of the most effective treatment for each patient and improving the efficacy and personalization of therapy.
The impact of TWINs4RA includes the selection of the best drug on the market for the treatment of each patient, maximizing benefits while reducing the risks of side effects. It also enables the rapid discovery and testing of new therapeutic targets, contributing to the establishment of a new drug development pathway.