Jerina Hoxha
15.9.26
Advancing virtual twins for personalised cancer treatment
From 1–4 September 2026, members of the CERTAINTY consortium joined the 9th International Conference on the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH 2026) in Milan, Italy, where they presented work spanning personalised cancer treatment, multi-scale modelling, single-cell data integration, and data governance.
Hosted at Politecnico di Milano, VPH 2026 brought together the international virtual physiological human and in silico medicine community under the theme “Towards the adoption of digital twins in healthcare.” The scientific programme addressed topics closely connected to CERTAINTY's work, including clinical decision support, multi-omics data integration, regulatory aspects of digital twins, systems biology, and multi-scale modelling.
For CERTAINTY, the conference provided an important opportunity to share different dimensions of the project with the wider virtual human twin community. The project is developing a multi-scale, patient-specific human virtual twin for patients eligible for CAR T cell therapy in multiple myeloma, with the longer-term potential to extend the approach to other cellular immunotherapies.
Five CERTAINTY contributions at VPH 2026
Across four talks and one poster, CERTAINTY researchers presented work addressing several of the scientific, technical, and governance challenges involved in developing virtual twins for personalised cancer treatment.
POSTER — Sebastian Schwick (Fraunhofer SCAI)
2 September, 12:42–12:45 | Room T.0.1
Deep multi-state models for individualized prognosis in multiple myeloma
TALK — Sophia Orozco-Ruiz (Institut Curie)
3 September, 09:54–10:06 | Room T.2.3
Personalized models to unveil mechanisms of engineered T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma
TALK — Maria Quaranta & Anne Funck Hansen (ITTM & Fraunhofer)
3 September, 12:00–12:12 | Room T.0.1
Breaking silos with dynamic data governance
TALK — Markus Kreuz (Fraunhofer IZI)
3 September, 12:12–12:24 | Room T.0.3
CERTAINTY: A cellular immunotherapy virtual twin for personalised cancer treatment
TALK — Christoph Kämpf (Fraunhofer IZI)
3 September, 12:24–12:36 | Room T.0.3
Integration of single-cell RNA-seq data into virtual twins for multiple myeloma CAR-T cell therapy
Connecting with the virtual twin community
Beyond the formal programme, CERTAINTY’s Project Coordinator, Kristin Reiche, connected with fellow researchers, clinicians, and potential collaborators throughout VPH 2026. These exchanges provided opportunities to discuss virtual human twins, CAR T cell therapy, multiple myeloma, and personalised medicine more broadly, exactly the kind of cross-disciplinary dialogue that the VPH community is designed to foster.
The conference offered a valuable setting not only to share CERTAINTY’s latest work, but also to exchange perspectives, explore potential synergies, and strengthen connections with the wider virtual human twin community.
Looking ahead
The CERTAINTY team's participation in VPH 2026 reflects the breadth of expertise required to turn virtual human twins into meaningful tools for personalised medicine. From modelling disease progression and engineered T-cell mechanisms to integrating single-cell data and establishing appropriate data governance, the contributions presented in Milan represent complementary pieces of the same challenge.
We thank the VPH 2026 organisers and everyone who joined our presentations, visited the poster, and exchanged ideas with the CERTAINTY team in Milan.
Learn more about VPH 2026: vph-conference.org