Flagship5 - Generating smart implants

Data- and AI-driven biomaterials system engineering will provide “smart” implants that include diagnostic sensors, bioelectronics and implantable personalized soft tissues and body parts. Within this Flagship, we aim to combine most advanced digital tools for the simulation and modeling of new materials/tissue interactions, with advanced experimental techniques and clinical data, to accelerate the patient-specific design of materials and the whole spectrum of devices. ‘Digital Twins’ based on real patient data and emerging foundation models will pave the way for the in silico development of medical prosthetics, smart implants and devices with drastically shortened preclinical and clinical phases. Such optimized development times promise a higher level of precision and effectiveness in addressing individual patient characteristics and needs. Validated in appropriately inspired longer-term clinical trials will assure tangible feed-back for further improvements, efficacy and safety. All in all, such a novel approach and iterative development cycles, will ultimately enable a switch from reacting to diseases to rather proactively identify and address early aberrations before their progression impacts an individual’s life span, leading to an overall healthier society.