The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has granted over $6 million in research funding to seven projects focused on developing digital twins for healthcare and biomedical applications. These digital twins are dynamic virtual representations of physical objects or processes.
Foundations for Digital Twins Program
The awards represent the first cohort of projects supported by the Foundations for Digital Twins as Catalyzers of Biomedical Technological Innovation program (FDT-BioTech), a partnership between NSF, NIH, and FDA. This program aims to foster advances in mathematics, statistics, computational sciences, and engineering required to develop responsive digital twin models that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
"Digital twins have the potential to remove common medical risks involved in patient monitoring and treatment, providing a framework for optimal decision-making," said Yulia Gel, program director in the NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences, which leads the FDT-BioTech program. "Real-world use of these complex models could streamline clinical trials for safer development of drugs and medical devices."
Research Project Overview
The awarded research projects encompass a range of topics, including:
- Development of mathematical models for virtual clinical trials of cardiovascular medical devices.
- Statistical tools for analyzing the ethical use of AI.
- Digital twin-based studies of neurodegenerative diseases.
- AI-informed decision-making related to glucose metabolism in people with Type 1 diabetes.
One awardee institution is located in an area supported by the NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which aims to build research capacity in states that have historically received lower levels of funding. The program highlights the broad applicability and potential impact of digital twin technology across various biomedical fields.
