A Cellular Immunotherapy Virtual Twin for Personalised Cancer Treatment
Our journey with CERTAINTY is driven by a simple fact: while CAR T cell therapy has worked wonders for many, it is still unclear why some patients do not respond to therapy. Some patients see long-term recoveries; others may not benefit as much or might face substantial side effects or even a return of the disease too soon. Because the therapy involves taking and re-engineering a patient’s own cells, it’s essential to pick just the right moment for treatment, considering age-related health issues and other factors. With CERTAINTY’s help, we’re aiming to use real-world data to not only choose the right time for treatment but also to improve CAR T cell production and open the doors for more people to benefit from this therapy, ultimately improving the odds of success.
CERTAINTY is pushing the boundaries with its first major leap: creating a fully connected virtual twin system that’s designed to support CAR T cell therapy patients. This isn’t just about tracking the disease; it’s about understanding the treatment itself because it is a biological system. By merging detailed patient data with cutting-edge computational models of both the cancer and the CAR T cells, we’re bringing something entirely new to the table. This integration will allow for informed, precise treatment decisions across Europe, and will make advanced therapies more accessible, especially in regions where they were previously out of reach.
CERTAINTY has received funding from the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101136379. Our project falls under the specific topic HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-03, which focuses on the development of integrated, multi-scale computational models of patient pathophysiology (‘virtual twins’) for personalised disease management. CERTAINTY is one of eight projects that have been granted funding under the same call.