Congratulations to LIFD's Alejandro Frangi's ERC Research Advanced Grant!

The LIFD would like to congratulate University of Leeds and LIFD researcher Prof. Alejandro Frangi for their award of the prestigious European Research Council's Research Advanced Grant.

Professor Frangi is Diamond Jubilee Chair in Computational Medicine and Royal Academy of Engineering and Chair in Emerging Technologies, with joint appointments at the School of Computing and the School of Medicine.

His research project, titled 'INSILICO', will establish the first integrated framework combining data- and knowledge-driven machine-learning, realising in-silico trials in medical devices. Novel in-silico insights on medical devices safety and efficacy will impact regulatory science and innovation significantly by reducing R&D costs and speeding up regulatory clearance.

Prof. Frangi proposed a new way to conceive in-silico trials as multi-model ensemble spaces of virtual experiments, equivalent to enrolling a cohort of synthetic, verifiably realistic virtual patients. Each virtual patients will harbour a virtually implanted medical devices operating within physiological envelopes, modelling the patient's short-/long-term response. Medical devices’ performance and design will be predicted under diverse physiological regimes, highlighting uncertainties only encountered in late-phase clinical testing.

Prof. Frangi says, "INSILICO underpins next-generation in-silico trials, a paradigm shift beyond current conventional clinical trials as the primary source of scientific evidence on medical device safety and efficacy."

Read more about the European Research Council's Research Advanced Grant.