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Generative AI

Harness Data Potential to Drive Innovation and Advance Biomedical Research

April 2 - 4, 2025 ALL TIMES EDT

In the face of ever-expanding data volumes, biopharma organizations are presented with unparalleled opportunities to drive innovation and gain actionable insights. Despite this surge, conventional data analysis and sharing methods struggle to keep pace, leaving organizations to grapple with fragmented data sources, inconsistent formats, and outdated systems that inhibit a holistic view of their data. Generative AI emerges as a transformative force, promising to redefine life sciences research and development by overcoming these challenges. From accelerating breakthroughs to optimizing data-driven strategies and automating complex processes, generative AI offers significant potential. However, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated data, while navigating ethical and regulatory landscapes, remains crucial. The Generative AI track explores these pivotal aspects, addressing barriers to implementation, evolving data strategies and platforms, and showcasing real-world use cases and future predictions. Join us to discover how generative AI can be harnessed to unlock new dimensions of research and development, paving the way for a more integrated and innovative approach to life sciences.

Wednesday, April 2

8:00 amRegistration Open and Morning Coffee

9:00 amRecommended Pre-Conference Workshops and Symposia*

On Wednesday, April 2, 2025, Cambridge Healthtech Institute is pleased to offer five pre-conference Workshops scheduled across two time slots (9:00 am–12:00 pm and 1:15–4:15 pm) and three Symposia from 9:00 am–4:20 pm. All are designed to be instructional, interactive, and provide in-depth information on a specific topic. They allow for one-on-one interaction and provide a great way to explain more technical aspects that would otherwise not be covered during the main conference tracks that take place Thursday–Friday.

*Separate registration required. See details on the Symposia here and details on the Workshops here.

4:40 pm

Organizer's Remarks

Cindy Crowninshield, Executive Event Director, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

4:45 pm PLENARY KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION:Explainable AI in Drug Discovery

Kshitij Kumar, CEO & Founder, CLOVERTEX

4:55 pm PLENARY KEYNOTE PANEL DISCUSSION:

From Bytes to Breakthroughs: Next-Generation AI Driving the Future of Life Sciences and Healthcare

PANEL MODERATOR:

Abbie Celniker, PhD, Partner, Third Rock Ventures LLC

Next-Generation AI has the potential to revolutionize life sciences by delivering unprecedented insights, automation, and efficiency. But what will those industry transformations look like? This keynote panel convenes leaders from biopharma, healthcare, and emerging tech who are applying AI—generative models and beyond—to accelerate drug discovery, diagnostics, and patient care. Panelists will share real-world case studies, discuss overcoming both technical and organizational challenges, and explore how AI is evolving from predictive tools to autonomous, decision-making systems. Look beyond the hype to uncover where AI is making a tangible impact today and where the next frontiers of innovation lie.

PANELISTS:

Tala Fakhouri, PhD, MPH, Associate Director for Data Science and AI Policy, FDA (participating virtually)

Per Greisen, PhD, President, BioMap

Sofia Guerra, Vice President, Bessemer Venture Partners

Subha Madhavan, PhD, Vice President and Head, AI/ML, Quantitative and Digital Sciences, Pfizer Inc.

Sonya Makhni, MD, Medical Director, Mayo Clinic Platform

6:10 pmWelcome Reception in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing (Sponsorship Opportunity Available)

The Bio-IT Kickoff Reception is a reunion—reconnect with friends, explore cutting-edge research, and celebrate innovation! Enjoy poster presentations, networking, and vote for the Best of Show and Poster awards.

7:25 pmClose of Day

Thursday, April 3

7:00 amRegistration and Morning Coffee

8:00 am

Organizer's Remarks

Allison Proffitt, Editorial Director, Bio-IT World and Clinical Research News

8:05 am PLENARY KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION:Build for Now & the Future: 8 Critical Pillars for Your Enterprise AI Strategy 

Jesse Cugliotta, Global Industry GTM Lead, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Snowflake, Inc.

HARNESSING AI FOR DRUG DISCOVERY: FROM INFRASTRUCTURE TO IMPLEMENTATION

8:15 am PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Data and Computing Infrastructure for the Life Sciences: Best Practices, Observations, and Lessons Learned

Chris Dwan, Independent Consultant, Dwan, LLC

This talk will provide practical, real-world advice based on Dwan's quarter century of experience designing and implementing high-performance computing and large-scale data systems for health care and the life sciences. Topics will include network architectures, cloud vs. "terrestrial" infrastructure, practical data strategies, information security, quality and compliance from R&D to the clinic, differentiated computing platforms, human and organizational factors, and of course AI.

8:45 am PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Generative AI, Aging Research and Robotics as a Platform for Drug Discovery: From Hype to Clinical Efficacy

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder & CEO, Insilico Medicine

9:15 amSession Q&A

9:30 amCoffee Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing (Sponsorship Opportunity Available)

Start your morning with coffee, connections, and cutting-edge research! Enjoy poster presentations, network in the Exhibit Hall, vote for awards, and a chance at a fabulous raffle prize!

10:15 amOrganizer's Welcome Remarks

GENERATIVE AI IN LIFE SCIENCES: TRANSFORMING DOCUMENT GENERATION, MOLECULAR DISCOVERY, AND R&D

10:20 am

Chairperson's Remarks

Rishi R. Gupta, PhD, Director, Data Science, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc.

10:25 am

Scaling Clinical Document Generation: Insights on Technical and User Experience Considerations

Irene Pak, Senior Director, AI Data & Analytics, Bristol Myers Squibb Co.

DocGen AI is our innovative clinical document authoring platform, currently expanding to encompass over 60 document types this year. This talk will outline the latest phase of the platform’s evolution, focusing on technical considerations and user experience, particularly regarding the quality of generated sections. We will also present initial metrics on user adoption and productivity improvements.

10:55 am

Harnessing Institutional Knowledge to Accelerate the Discovery of Medicines

Rishi R. Gupta, PhD, Director, Data Science, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc.

This talk explores how Novartis leverages generative AI to harness institutional knowledge for accelerating drug discovery. By integrating data science and AI-driven insights, this approach unearths critical knowledge assets, streamlining research processes and enhancing decision-making. Attendees will gain an understanding of how AI tools facilitate knowledge discovery, reduce time-to-insight, and drive innovation in pharmaceutical research, ultimately advancing the discovery of effective new therapies.

11:25 am

Generative AI for Molecules

Abhishek Pandey, PhD, Global Lead & Principal Research Scientist, Information Research, AbbVie, Inc.

This talk delves into AI-driven approaches for designing and predicting molecular structures, optimizing drug discovery processes, and uncovering novel therapeutic candidates. Attendees will gain insights into generative AI's transformative role in R&D, enhancing precision and efficiency in molecular and pharmaceutical sciences.

11:55 am Deep Learning in the Design-Make-Test-Analyze Cycle

Sean McGee, Director of Product, AI, Certara

Hear from a Certara AI leader on how GPTs and machine learning are poised to accelerate and inform the DMTA cycle. From accelerating the discovery of compound data in files, lab reports, and more with optical structure recognition and simplifying the building and maintenance of property prediction models, AI will guide your identification of more promising leads.

12:25 pm Lab in a Loop—Boosting Productivity in Laboratory Operations with ​
Generative AI

Akhil Rachamadugu, Director Life Sciences Industry Solutions, ServiceNow

Rory Kelleher, Dir Healthcare & Life Sciences, Bus Dev & Healthcare, NVIDIA Corp

In this session, we’ll explore how NVIDIA and ServiceNow are partnering to transform lab operations with generative AI. We'll start with NVIDIA, highlighting advances in dry lab computing and the concept of lab-in-the-loop to drive R&D productivity. This enables scientists to simulate, analyze, and iterate faster — accelerating discovery before any physical experiment begins. ServiceNow will then shift to the wet lab, focusing on real-world lab operations. We’ll share how our agentic AI platform drives efficiency through standardization, quantification, and automation — streamlining workflows, reducing costs, and improving compliance across R&D and quality functions. Together, we’re building the next-generation lab — where digital insights and physical workflows are fully connected to accelerate innovation and improve patient outcomes.

12:55 pmSession Break and Transition to Lunch

1:05 pm LUNCHEON PRESENTATION: Advanced Patient-Level Insights: Engage with RWD through Technology

Lisa Arbogast, Industry Principal, Life Sciences, Snowflake, Inc.

Snowflake is committed to providing customers with optimal value through easy, efficient, and trusted access to technology and data to solve business challenges. Our Healthcare and Life Sciences AI Data Cloud Ecosystem extends platform capabilities to technology and data partners for seamless integration, allowing customers to "build or buy" solutions based on time-to-value needs.

Real-world data (RWD) is complex - different sources suit different therapeutic areas, and those needing insights are often not data scientists. Trinity's RealWorldEDGE is a data-agnostic, self-serve analytics solution that helps users extract value from RWD and drive decisions with patient-level insights, no coding required.

Join Snowflake's Lisa Arbogast and Trinity's Clare Gora as they explore a RealWorldEDGE use case, demonstrating patient cohort generation and insight application - from patient flow mapping to clinical trial recruitment.

1:35 pmRefreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing (Sponsorship Opportunity Available)

Bio-IT's hall is bigger than ever—one break won’t cut it! Enjoy dessert and coffee after lunch, explore booths and posters, vote for awards, and participate in our raffle for a chance to win a prize!

STRATEGIC AI INTEGRATION AND GOVERNANCE IN PHARMA

2:25 pm Chairperson's Remarks

Chidozie Agu, Manager, Bioassay Development, SPOC Proteomics

2:30 pm

AI Transformation Unleashed: From Concept to Reality—A Pharma Blueprint

Murtaza Cherawala, Pharmaceutical/Biotech IT Leader – Data, AL/ML

Raveen Sharma, Managing Dir, Life Sciences & Healthcare, ConvergeHEALTH by Deloitte

A leader in RNAi-based medicines leverages GenAI to drive innovation and accelerate the development of groundbreaking therapies. By strategically integrating GenAI across functions, the company bolsters its core capabilities and strategically positions itself to harness AI as a force multiplier. Gain an understanding and insights on the company's successful AI journey from aligning executives around AI goals, establishing governance, identifying and prioritizing high-impact use cases, developing and deploying a comprehensive AI roadmap. You will acquire actionable insights and strategies to initiate and drive Enterprise AI initiatives within your organization, positioning it at the vanguard of technological advancements in the industry.

3:00 pm

Know Your Audits—A GenAI Framework for Risk Mitigation in Pharma (and Beyond)

Achal Dixit, Data Scientist III, Innovation & Digital Health, Bristol Myers Squibb India

Introducing a framework leveraging GenAI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify and mitigate risks in pharmaceutical supply chains and manufacturing. By integrating an agentic layer, the framework enhances competitive intelligence, strengthens resilience, and optimizes audit efficiency. It replaces siloed pipelines and analytics with seamless reporting and alerting. Additionally, the framework extends to clinical trials, improving process workflows, and providing comprehensive risk mitigation across diverse areas, ensuring long-term operational success.

3:30 pm

Revolutionizing Drug Discovery with Generative AI

Petrina Kamya, PhD, Global Head of AI Platforms & Vice President, Insilico Medicine; President, Insilico Medicine Canada

The traditional drug discovery process is lengthy, costly, and fraught with failure, with development often taking over a decade and costing billions. This talk will explore how generative AI is transforming this paradigm through Insilico Medicine’s innovative machine learning platform, enabling novel target identification, small molecule design, and clinical trial prediction. Discover how generative AI is accelerating drug development and reshaping the future of medicine.

4:00 pm Generative AI in Drug Discovery: Are We Really There Yet?

Melissa Landon, Head of Commercial and Business Development, AI + Automation in Drug Discovery, MilliporeSigma

Generative design of novel therapeutics is the holy grail of AI-driven drug discovery. Toward this end, the release of large foundational AI models that promise to deliver truly unique drug candidates that meet very specific criteria has generated much excitement over the last couple of years. However, despite this high level of buzz, most companies still design drugs using traditional approaches. In this talk we’ll explore why this is and what it will take for the game-changing potential of generative AI in drug discovery.

4:30 pmBest of Show Awards Reception in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing (Sponsorship Opportunity Available)

Unwind with colleagues at our lively reception! Explore posters, vote for the best, network with exhibitors, enjoy a drink, and try to win a raffle prize. Celebrate Best of Show winners!

5:45 pmClose of Day

Friday, April 4

7:00 amRegistration Open and Morning Coffee

7:00 amQuick Bytes & Networking Breakfast—Lifted Rooftop Restaurant & Bar (Sponsorship Opportunity Available)

Start your morning with ‘Quick Bytes & Networking’! Enjoy a cozy restaurant-style setting, quick bites, and speed networking. Connect, converse, and energize your Bio-IT experience before the plenary keynote!

8:00 am

Organizer's Remarks

Cindy Crowninshield, Executive Event Director, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

8:05 am

Innovative Practices Awards: Excellence in Technological Innovation

Allison Proffitt, Editorial Director, Bio-IT World and Clinical Research News

Since 2003, Bio-IT World has hosted an elite awards program with the goal of highlighting outstanding examples of how technology innovations and strategic initiatives are being applied to advance life sciences research. The 2025 Innovative Practices Awards winners represent excellence in innovation in the areas of informatics, pre-competitive collaboration, clinical and health IT, and genomics. Companies driving the winning entries include Genmab, Genedata, NHS England, IQVIA, Pistoia Alliance, Regeneron, and Quris-AI. For more details about the Awards, visit www.bioitworldexpo.com/innovativepractices.

8:20 am PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

The Longitude Prize on ALS: A Groundbreaking Global Prize Harnessing the Power of AI to Drive Treatment for ALS

Tris Dyson, Founder, Challenge Works

Jeffrey D. Rothstein, MD, PhD, Professor, Neurology and Neuroscience; Director, Brain Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University

The Longitude Prize series brings together the brightest minds to solve the world's most challenging innovation problems. The Longitude Prize on ALS, launching in June 2025, will bring together computational biologists, neurodegenerative researchers and AI-driven biotech globally to uncover novel therapeutic targets for ALS. 

ADVANCING DRUG DISCOVERY AND HEALTHCARE THROUGH DATA-DRIVEN INNOVATION: FROM GENOMICS TO THERAPEUTICS

8:35 am PLENARY KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION:Shaping the Next Era of Precision Health with Multiomics and AI-Driven Predictive Insights

Rami Mehio, Vice President, Head of Global Software and Informatics, Illumina, Inc.

8:45 am PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Scaling Genomic Medicine: Transforming Newborn Screening through Informatics and Innovation

Robert C. Green, MD, MPH, Professor and Director of Genomes2People Research, Mass General Brigham, Broad Institute, Ariadne Labs, and Harvard Medical School

The BabySeq Project has pioneered the integration of genomic sequencing into newborn and childhood screening, uncovering unexpected risk variants and transforming healthcare delivery. This keynote explores the groundbreaking progress in genomic medicine, featuring real-world stories of families impacted by these discoveries. Learn about the informatics challenges and innovative solutions required to scale genomic screening for national and global implementation, reshaping the future of precision medicine.

9:15 am PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Unlocking the Power of Machine Learning and Data-at-Scale to Deliver with Speed the Best Therapeutic Candidates

Justin M. Scheer, PhD, Vice President In Silico Discovery & Head, Molecular Computational Team, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

The challenges of high costs, lengthy timelines, and significant attrition have prompted our industry to integrate AI/ML into all aspects of the business. This presentation highlights J&J's strategic investments in AI/ML technologies to enhance the drug discovery processes, including molecule design and optimization. By investing in these technologies with a modality agnostic approach, J&J aims to tackle the hardest targets in drug discovery, ultimately increasing the success rate of delivering better molecules faster.

9:45 amCoffee Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Competition Winners Announced (Sponsorship Opportunity Available)

Bio-IT is all about connections! Explore booths, award-winning posters, and network with clients, colleagues, and exhibitors. Grab coffee, build relationships, and stay for a chance to win a raffle prize!

10:30 amOrganizer's Remarks

AI-DRIVEN INSIGHTS: TRANSFORMING DATA MANAGEMENT FROM DISCOVERY TO CLINICAL TRIALS

10:35 am

Chairperson's Remarks

Grant Stephen, CEO & Co-Founder, bPrescient, Inc.

10:40 am

Automating Cell Therapy Multi-Modal Ontology Construction and Data Cataloging with RAG+ & LLM

David McNamee, Director, Deloitte

Jenny Wei, PhD, Senior Director, R&D Informatics and Technology, Kite Pharma

As a new therapeutic modality, cell therapy presents complex ontologies and meta-data as challenges and opportunities for the informatics community. Traditional SME-led manual curations and data annotations cannot keep up with the multi-modal data generation speed. Automating ontology enrichment with LLM-augmented named entity recognition (NER), and ontology-driven RAG for meta-data cataloging is leading scientists to a much faster data-to-insights journey. Our presentation will introduce methods using existing large language and embedding models to effectively identify relevant information in a large unstructured knowledge base across targeted scientific fields by generating a domain-specific ontology that will both focus and enhance LLM responses during researcher-initiated search.

11:10 am

Enchant: A Multimodal Transformer to Bridge Preclinical and Clinical Research and Development

Fred Manby, DPhil, Co-Founder & CTO, Iambic Therapeutics

Drug development is inefficient and costly, mainly due to a lack of available clinical data to inform programs earlier and prevent late-stage failures. Iambic has created a multimodal and multitask transformer model, called Enchant, trained on abundant discovery data and limited amounts of clinical data to break through this data wall and predict clinical outcomes. Enchant provides insights into key clinical properties of potential medicines, reducing clinical risk by predicting the viability of molecules from the earliest stages of discovery.

11:40 am

Harnessing AI against Chronic Disease: An Integrated Platform to Efficiently Transform Data into Drugs

Hok Hei Tam, PhD, Co-Founder and CTO, Montai Therapeutics; Senior Principal, Flagship Pioneering

Montai is advancing CONECTA, an integrated platform that enables discovery of new oral small molecule therapeutics against chronic disease from a diverse and bioactive chemical space generated from natural products with a history of human consumption. CONECTA integrates proprietary bioassay data and machine learning models built on repositories of chemistry and biological data on key pathways and drug-like properties. This integration of machine learning with chemistry and biology expertise enables better decision-making and improves the probability of small molecule success before any compounds are tested in the lab.

12:10 pm Multiomics in the AI Era: Intelligent Pipelines & Accelerated Insights

Malini Manoharan, Associate Vice President, Life Sciences Consulting, Domain Consulting, Agilisium

Yamunadevi Subburaj, Principal Life Sciences Consultant, Agilisium

This session explores a Generative AI (GenAI)-powered framework, that automates multiomics data processing, enabling dynamic, customizable pipelines. By leveraging AI-driven standardization, metadata annotation, and intelligent data harmonization, this approach reduces manual intervention while improving data integration and interpretability.

Agilisium's Genomix-AI Solution enhances scientific workflows by enabling natural language-driven queries, automated insight generation, and seamless cross-omics integration. Researchers can interact with their data more intuitively, accelerating biomarker discovery, systems biology insights, and precision medicine advancements. This AI-powered solution improves reproducibility, scalability, and efficiency, transforming multiomics research.

12:25 pm AI-Powered Real-World Evidence: Accelerating Clinical Trial Design

Christophe Aubry, Global Head of Life Sciences & Healthcare, Expert.ai

AI is reshaping clinical trial design by transforming real-world data into actionable insights. This session explores how AI-driven analysis of millions of scientific papers and trials accelerates patient recruitment, refines eligibility criteria, and enhances competitive intelligence. Discover how integrating real-world evidence with hybrid AI capabilities can optimize trial protocols, reduce enrollment risks, and speed up study start-up.

12:40 pm Harnessing the Power of Generative AI with CARA, ConcertAI’s Clinical and Research Accelerator Platform

Stephen Yip, PhD, Vice President, Architect GenAI, ConcertAI

Please join us for a session to explore how ConcertAI — a leading oncology-focused AI technology company — is accelerating clinical trials and research through its proprietary platform, CARA.ai. Powered by advanced generative AI, CARA integrates ConcertAI’s proprietary AI solutions with AWS Cloud and NVIDIA microservices, including NIM and BioNeMo, to enable a scalable, multi-agent framework development. CARA.ai supports the processing of large-scale clinical data, management of predictive models, and rapid product development. By leveraging NVIDIA’s tools on AWS infrastructure, ConcertAI efficiently builds comprehensive knowledge graphs and develops applications that address critical components of clinical solution development — from optimizing eligibility criteria and site strategy to improving patient matching, enrolment forecasting, and trial execution.

1:10 pmSession Break and Transition to Lunch

1:20 pm LUNCHEON PRESENTATION: AI-Powered Biotech: A Start-Up Revolution at Google Cloud

Ashish Chauhan, Customer Engineer, Machine Learning, Google Cloud

Start-ups are increasingly leveraging Google AI's cutting-edge technologies to revolutionize biotech, driving innovation across the industry. This session explores how these companies utilize AI/ML for critical applications, including drug discovery, precision medicine, and bioinformatics. Through real-world examples, we will highlight the transformative impact of Google AI in accelerating product development, improving research outcomes, and delivering innovative healthcare solutions to patients.

1:50 pmRefreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Last Chance for Poster Viewing (Sponsorship Opportunity Available)

Feeling tired? Recharge during the final Networking Exhibit Hall break! Visit booths, explore posters, connect with peers, and turn in your Game Cards for a chance to win a raffle prize.

DRIVING AI INNOVATION: BEST PRACTICES FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN BIOPHARMA

2:30 pm

Chairperson's Remarks

Srivatsan Nagaraja, Founder, Vidya Seva

2:35 pm

Unlocking AI Potential: Best Practices for Implementation and Management

Dimitris K. Agrafiotis, PhD, Director, Digital, Analytics, and AI, Arsenal Capital Partners

Julie Bryant, Chief Strategy Officer & Founder, Rancho BioSciences

Vinod Das, R&D Drug Innovation, AI Solutions, Bayer Pharmaceuticals

Petrina Kamya, PhD, Global Head of AI Platforms & Vice President, Insilico Medicine; President, Insilico Medicine Canada

Srivatsan Nagaraja, Founder, Vidya Seva

As AI transforms drug discovery, development, and precision medicine, understanding the business operations behind these advancements is essential. This session will cover critical aspects such as AI tool selection, project scoping, budget management, and prioritization amid evolving regulations. Gain insights from real-world case studies on successful AI deployment, with strategies to navigate regulatory risks while ensuring cost-effectiveness. Join us for a dynamic discussion to harness AI’s full potential in life sciences innovation.

4:05 pmClose of Conference







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