Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Towards credible digital twins for basic and preclinical research

Digital twins are well established in industrial settings, but there has not been wide adoption in biomedical settings. Digital twins for biomedical applications are now possible with the inclusion of artificial intelligence and the potential to combine mechanistic and clinical models that learn and adjust for human variability.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins (National Academies Press, 2024).

  2. Coveney, P., Highfield, R., Stahlberg, E. & Vázquez, M. Digital twins and big AI: the future of truly individualised healthcare. npj Digit. Med. 8, 494 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sel, K. et al. Building digital twins for cardiovascular health: from principles to clinical impact. J. Am. Heart Assoc. 13, e031981 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Wolpert, D. M. & Miall, R. C. Forward models for physiological motor control. Neural Netw. 9, 1265–1279 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bates, J. H. T. Lung Mechanics: An Inverse Modeling Approach (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009).

  6. Yadan, Z. et al. An expert review of the inverse problem in electrocardiographic imaging for the non-invasive identification of atrial fibrillation drivers. Comput. Methods Programs Biomed. 240, 107676 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Sel, K. et al. Survey and perspective on verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification of digital twins for precision medicine. npj Digit. Med. 8, 40 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ates, H. C. et al. End-to-end design of wearable sensors. Nat. Rev. Mater. 7, 887–907 (2022).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Akbarialiabad, H. et al. Bridging silicon and carbon worlds with digital twins and on-chip systems in drug discovery. npj Syst. Biol. Appl. 10, 150 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Tudor, B. H. et al. A scoping review of human digital twins in healthcare applications and usage patterns. npj Digit. Med. 8, 587 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Colleen E. Clancy.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Clancy, C.E., Landman, B.A. Towards credible digital twins for basic and preclinical research. Nat Rev Methods Primers 6, 5 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-025-00454-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-025-00454-3

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research