Interview Health Prevention with AI and Bioengineering

"'An apple a day'... — That's not enough: It needs AI and Bioengeneering technologies for modern prevention!"

Prof. Matthias Tschöp, CEO at Helmholtz Munich

Prof. Matthias Tschöp on how Helmholtz Munich puts all its expertise into health research by using cutting-edge tools and the supporting scientific power of Artificial Intelligence and Bioengineering – for a healthier life with modern prevention. 

MT: Clearly, good nutrition and exercise provide a solid foundation for a healthy life. However, our knowledge of health and disease prevention has advanced tremendously over the past decades. There are an incredible number of parameters that affect our health, such as genetic predispositions or environmental influences. Thanks to cutting-edge tools like those provided by artificial intelligence, we are increasingly able to understand these factors and their interactions. This allows doctors and scientists to make more accurate statements about an individual's health risk profile and develop tailored preventive measures and interventions. This opens opportunities to finally transition from reactive healthcare to personalized prevention.

MT: Before we can see externally that a person is ill, a lot is already happening in the body at a molecular level - essentially invisible and undetected. To make diseases visible at the earliest possible stage, at Helmholtz Munich, world-known experts are investigating groundbreaking methods for better prevention: They are using revolutionary technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and bioengineering – a combination of engineering and life sciences.

Our goal is to use cutting-edge technologies in sensing, genetics, and machine learning to make early detection and prevention available at a new level for everyone, to accelerate it, and to make it more precise. Ideally, we want to detect and prevent diseases long before they manifest. To ensure these solutions reach patients faster, we need even better networking with university medicine and closer partnerships with industry. That’s why we launched the M1 Munich Medicine Alliance, an umbrella structure that closely links both university hospitals with non-university research at Helmholtz Munich to unlock synergy potential.

"Our goal is to use cutting-edge technologies in sensing, genetics, and machine learning to make early detection and prevention available at a new level for everyone, to accelerate it, and to make it more precise."

Prof. Matthias Tschöp

MT: The world can change in a decade. By then, some of the breakthroughs we are experiencing today in the lab will have reached patients, medicine, and society. Physicians will use AI models and predictive AI to tailor therapies and diagnoses to individual patients. Thanks to stem cell research and regenerative medicine methods, we will hopefully soon be able to replace defective cells or organs. At Helmholtz Munich, we are researching organ-on-chip models and personalized preventive therapies, developing AI-supported screening models, and improving early diagnosis methods. This research paves the way for a future of personalized and applied preventive medicine.

Latest update: October 2024