This work focuses on the development of a damage detection and localization tool using the topology optimization feature of MSC.Nastran. This approach is based on the correlation of a local stiffness loss and the change in modal parameters due to damages in structures. The loss in stiffness is accounted by the topology optimization approach for updating undamaged numerical models towards similar models with embedded damages. Hereby, only a mass penalization and the changes in experimentally obtained modal parameters are used as objectives. The theoretical background for the implementation of this method is derived and programmed in a Nastran input file and the general feasibility of the approach is validated numerically, as well as experimentally by updating a model of an experimentally tested composite laminate specimen. The damages have been introduced to the specimen by controlled low energy impacts and high quality vibration tests have been conducted on the specimen for different levels of damage. These supervised experiments allow to test the numerical diagnosis tool by comparing the result with both NDT technics and results of previous works (concerning shifts in modal parameters due to damage). Good results have finally been achieved for the localization of the damages by the topology optimization.