A decade of innovation in healthcare: Automation, bio-printing and digital twin technologies for personalized therapies
Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) face a distinct manufacturing challenge: delivering patient-specific therapies with reproducible quality, acceptable cost, and GMP-compliant manufacturing control. This narrative review examines how, over the past decade, the manufacturing of these therapies has moved from operator-dependent, open workflows toward more automated, closed or functionally closed, and increasingly data-supported process architectures. Three converging technology streams are discussed: (i) closed and semi-closed automated platforms for GMP-compliant cell manufacturing, (ii) advanced bioprinting and 3D manufacturing systems for tissue-engineered products, and (iii) digital twin concepts and related data-driven strategies as emerging enabling layers for monitoring, traceability, and process support. Across these domains, the dominant engineering trend is a shift from standalone equipment toward integrated frameworks aimed at reducing operator dependence, improving reproducibility, and strengthening GMP readiness. Overall, the field is shifting from isolated tools to more coordinated, automation-oriented, and increasingly data-supported workflows.
Authors
- Hermes Giberti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8840-8497)
- Giuseppina Sandri
- Donya Ghavami
- Nicola Giulietti
Institutions
- University of Pavia (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- International Journal of Pharmaceutics X
- Published
- 2026-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpx.2026.100526
- Primary Topic
- 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00