Using Complex Systems to Predict Disease Progression
CBeRa is shaping the future of biomedical research through complex systems science and digital twins.
The CBeRa – Strategic Integration of Complex Networks and Systems for Advancing Biomedical Research – project is redifining how we studyhealth and disease, applying complex systems science to biomedicine. Instead of studying one gene, molecule, or disease at a time, it looks at how factors at multiple scales (biological, environmental, and social) interact. This enables explanation of disease factors and behaviours that no single scale can account for on its own – for instance, social, environmental, and psychological factors in disease.
Funded by the European Commission’s ERA Chair programme, the project is based at the Católica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR) of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and led by Professor Luís Rocha, ERA Chair holder in complex systems science.
Professor Rocha’s research focuses on digital twins for health, including models for psychiatric and complex diseases. These digital representations combine biological and social data to simulate health processes and forecast disease progression. Such tools are central to the future of personalised and preventive medicine.
CBeRa integrates computational modelling, data science, and network theory to create explainable tools that help researchers and health professionals translate data into prevention and treatment strategies. To advance this vision, the project is assembling a multidisciplinary team that will support the establishment of an additional independent group leader, expanding the centre’s capacity in computational and systems biomedicine.
Building on this foundation, CBeRa is paving the way for the establishment of the Lisbon Institute for Complex Systems (LxCS), a Horizon Europe Teaming for Excellence project now entering Stage 2 after a successful first evaluation. If awarded, LxCS will collaborate with the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre-BSC (Spain) and the Institute for Scientific Interchange-ISI (Italy) to develop digital twins for health and for Lisbon, connecting biomedical, environmental, and urban data to guide public health and city planning.
Through these projects, Universidade Católica Portuguesa is developing new capacity in computational and systems science, strengthening Portugal’s role in the European Research Area. Together, CBeRa and a are laying the groundwork for an integrated, data-informed research, one that connects human health, cities, and society.
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By Pedro Simas, Coordinator of CBeRa and Executive Director of .