Schizophrenia and related psychoses impose a life‑long health and economic burden, yet clinical decisions still rely on coarse symptom scales and trial‑and‑error pharmacotherapy. Recent advances in neuroimaging, multiscale modelling and high‑performance computing now make it possible to move psychiatry from population averages to patient‑specific mechanisms.
Virtual Brain Twin (VBT) sets out to deliver that paradigm shift. The 17‑partner consortium is building the first personalised, multiscale “digital twin” of the human brain that links molecular pathways, microcircuits and whole‑brain networks to individual clinical profiles. Leveraging EBRAINS cloud‑HPC resources, VBT integrates curated multimodal datasets, biophysically detailed cell models and data‑driven AI to simulate disease trajectories and predict treatment response in silico. The initial clinical focus is schizophrenia, whose dopaminergic and glutamatergic dysfunctions are explicitly captured in our models.
The expected impact is three‑fold. Scientifically, VBT will provide an open, reproducible modelling framework and FAIR data pipelines that accelerate brain research across Europe. Clinically, virtual trialling of drugs and neuro‑stimulation on a patient’s twin promises earlier, safer and more cost‑effective care, potentially reducing the large annual EU burden of psychosis. Economically, the project cultivates a new digital‑health market around certified decision‑support tools and de‑risked drug‑discovery pathways.
From the outset, social‑science and humanities partners ensure that the technology evolves in dialogue with the people it serves. Ethnographic interviews, ethics‑by‑design guidelines and co‑creation labs with patients, relatives and clinicians steer data governance, consent models and user‑interface choices, safeguarding trust, transparency and inclusivity. Alignment with the EU AI Act, GDPR and the Digital Europe “Virtual Human Twin” roadmap positions VBT as an exemplar for responsible, human‑centric AI in health care.
By integrating cutting‑edge neuroscience with ethical, societal and industrial foresight, VBT lays the foundations for precision psychiatry and establishes Europe as a leader in digital-twin medicine.
