Science Year 2026: Medicine of the Future

Earlier detection. Precision treatment. Rethinking healing. Research into precision medicine at Fraunhofer combines biological findings, digital technologies and medical expertise to gain a better understanding of diseases and to tailor therapies to individual patients. This leads to healthcare innovations that improve and save lives. Fraunhofer researchers are developing new active ingredients, precise diagnostic methods, intelligent data analyses and smart medical technology for this purpose. Our 4D approach entails an interdisciplinary combination of drugs, diagnostics, devices and data.

Drugs, diagnostics, devices, data

Fraunhofer Institutes address four major areas of medical science.

Drugs – Developing New Active Ingredients and Vaccines

Many diseases can only be treated inadequately because active ingredients are too unspecific, cause side effects or fail to reach the intended site in the body. Fraunhofer is developing new classes of active ingredients, cell-based therapies and vaccines across the entire innovation chain – from computer-aided drug design to preclinical models and clinical trials.

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Diagnostics – Precise and Digital Diagnostics

Many diseases are detected too late or inaccurately, resulting in a loss of valuable time for targeted treatment, especially for cancer and chronic diseases. Fraunhofer researchers are developing highly sensitive diagnostic methods that detect biological markers, pathogens or functional changes at an early stage.

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Devices – Innovative Medical Technology

Many patients lose mobility, independence and quality of life due to illness, accidents or old age, and assistive technologies are still not intuitive enough or suitable for everyday use. New technologies support people in daily life, therapy and care, relieve the burden on medical staff and enable a self-determined life, thanks to medical technology that adapts to people rather than the other way around.

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Data – Intelligent Analysis of Large Amounts of Data

Today, health data is often fragmented, difficult to access or incompatible with each other. Its enormous potential for improved diagnoses and therapies remains untapped. Fraunhofer combines medical data from clinics, research and care in secure data spaces and uses AI methods such as digital twins and in-silico models. Sensitive data remains protected and under patients’ control.

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Further information

Fraunhofer Group for Health

The Fraunhofer Group for Health aims to facilitate a high degree of interdisciplinarity across the 4D model — drugs, diagnostics, devices and data. The innovation potential offered by interlinking the different scientific disciplines should provide significant added value for health research and patients.

more info (gesundheit.fraunhofer.de)

The Medical Data Space – a secure data space for medicine

Security in the transmission and storage of sensitive data is becoming increasingly important. That is why Fraunhofer is working with partners in the healthcare sector to develop the Medical Data Space. Linking different types of medical data on a single IT platform can bring major benefits for diagnosis and treatment.

more info (medical-data-space.fraunhofer.de)

Fraunhofer Flagship project

Automated production technologies for mRNA-based drugs

mRNA-based vaccines, along with gene and cell therapeutics, represent innovative drugs that can be used to prevent and/or treat infectious diseases, genetic disorders and cancer. Hence the need for automated and digitally supported production technologies that facilitate not only the rapid, safe and reliable development of innovative mRNA drugs, but also their production in accordance with the high demands of good manufacturing practice (GMP).

to the project website (izi.fraunhofer.de)

Fraunhofer magazine
3/2025

Cover story: Open the Door! New solutions for medicine | and much more

epaper (fraunhofer.de)
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