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Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics

Digitalization of Pharma R&D and the Path to Innovation

May 20 - 21, 2026

The need and urgency to generate, organize, and analyze data in the pharmaceutical industry has not waned. With the increase in digitalization in Pharma R&D, increasingly large and complex system landscapes have been established, and as a consequence, pharma companies struggle with the exploded operative effort, limiting the potential for further innovation. At the same time, many life science organizations remain limited by fragmented workflows and disconnected systems. The Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics track will include talks from senior-level pharma and biotech experts who will showcase current digital transformation efforts, within their organizations, for optimizing operations via new technologies and services to create an efficient informatics ecosystem, while meeting scientific, business, and regulatory demands.

Tuesday, May 19

8:30 amRecommended Pre-Conference Workshops and Symposia*

On Tuesday, May 19, 2026, Cambridge Healthtech Institute is pleased to offer six pre-conference Workshops scheduled across two time slots (9:00 am–12:00 pm and 1:15–4:15 pm) and three Symposia from 8:30 am–3:45 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 Wednesday–Thursday.

*Separate registration required. Additional details:

Symposia: www.bio-itworldexpo.com/symposia

Workshops: www.bio-itworldexpo.com/workshops

PLENARY KEYNOTE PROGRAM

4:30 pm

Grab Your Seat! 25th Annual Golden Ticket Prize Giveaway & Organizer’s Remarks*

Cindy Crowninshield, Executive Event Director, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

*Must be present to win.

4:35 pm

Welcome Remarks from the City of Boston and the Office of Mayor Michelle Wu

Donald Wright, Interim Chief, Economic Opportunity & Inclusion Cabinet, City of Boston

4:40 pm PLENARY KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION:

Getting Ready for Effective AI: Starting with FAIR Principles

Diana Gamez Diaz, Head, Data & AI Engineering, RCH Solutions

4:50 pm PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Rare Conversations: Explorations of the Research, Funding, and Advocacy for Rare Diseases

Thomas Bartlett, Ambassador, MG Uniter Myasthenia Gravis, Amgen

Catherine Brownstein, PhD, Manager, Molecular Genomics Core Facility, Boston Children's Hospital; Scientific Director, Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research Gene Discovery Core; Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

Morgan Cheatham, MD, Partner, Head of Healthcare & Life Sciences, Breyer Capital

Sebastien Lefebvre, Head of Technology, Data and AI, Aurelis Insights

Dylan V. Livingston, Founder and President, The Alliance for Longevity Initiatives (A4LI)

William Van Etten, PhD, Co-Founder, CEO & Principal Scientist, StarfleetBio

Susan J. Ward, PhD, Founder & Executive Director, cTAP

In a unique plenary series of intimate conversations, we will explore the models, drivers, and challenges facing rare disease research. By uniting leaders in precision medicine, bioinformatics, national rare-disease infrastructure, and real-world legislative advocacy, we will give attendees an expansive, cross-disciplinary view of what’s required to deliver faster, more accurate, and more equitable rare-disease cures.

6:00 pmWelcome Reception & 25th Anniversary Celebration in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing

The Bio-IT Kickoff Reception is a reunion, reconnect with friends, explore cutting-edge research, and celebrate innovation! This year, join us in celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Bio-IT World Conference & Expo with cake and champagne as we mark a quarter century of advancing science and technology. Enjoy poster presentations, networking, and vote for the Best of Show and Poster awards.

7:15 pmClose of Day

Wednesday, May 20

6:30 amBio-IT World’s 5K Rise and Shine Fun Run! (Sponsorship Opportunities Available)

RUN COORDINATORS:
Bridget Kotelly, Senior Conference Director, Cambridge Healthtech Institute
Eileen Murphy, Conference Producer, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

Lace up and join Bio-IT’s Coordinators for the Fun Run on Wednesday, May 20! Sprint, jog, walk, or talk-your-way-through—ALL abilities are welcome. This informal event is all about getting moving together. Full details to come…just don’t forget your sneakers!

7:00 amRegistration and Morning Coffee

PLENARY KEYNOTE PROGRAM

8:00 am

Grab Your Seat! 25th Annual Golden Ticket Prize Giveaway & Organizer’s Remarks*

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

*Must be present to win.

8:05 am PLENARY KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION:

From Tools to AI Teammates: How AI-Driven Scientific Workbenches Can Redefine the Scientist User Experience

Sayan Lahiri, Vice President, CLOVERTEX

Life sciences R&D is drowning in powerful tools, massive data, and advanced infrastructure—yet scientists still spend too much time managing environments, rerunning workflows, and navigating fragmented systems. The real bottleneck is no longer data or compute; it is the scientist’s user experience. In this plenary, we explore how Clovertex’s AI-driven scientific workbench called NUMEN is changing the role of technology from passive infrastructure to an active scientific collaborator. By embedding AI directly into the workbench, these platforms guide scientists in choosing the right compute, optimizing cost, enforcing reproducibility, tracking metadata, and scaling experiments seamlessly from exploration to production—all while governance and security remain invisible. AI-powered workbenches create a shared operating model where science moves faster, results are trusted, and innovation scales. The future of life sciences R&D will not be defined by more tools—but by intelligent platforms that work like a teammate alongside scientists.

8:15 am PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

The Collaboration Breakthrough: How Federated Learning Is Rewriting the Rules of Drug Discovery

Mohammed AlQuraishi, PhD, Assistant Professor, Systems Biology, Columbia University

Jonathan B. Gilbert, PhD, Senior Director, Ecosystem Growth and Contributor Partnerships, Eli Lilly and Company

José-Tomás Prieto, PhD, Director of AI Programs, Apheris

Woody Sherman, PhD, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, PsiThera

Christina Taylor, PhD, Senior Science Fellow and Computational Molecular Design Lead, Bayer

Arman Zaribafiyan, PhD, Head of Strategic Alliances, AI Simulation, SandboxAQ

The pharmaceutical industry sits on a collective treasure trove of proprietary structural biology data, yet competitive concerns have historically prevented the data sharing necessary to train the most powerful AI models for drug discovery. Federated learning is changing this paradigm, enabling biopharma companies to collaborate on AI model training while keeping sensitive data secure and confidential. This plenary session explores the groundbreaking AI Structural Biology (AISB) Network, where industry leaders are pooling proprietary protein-ligand structure data to collaboratively train OpenFold3, an AI model designed to predict molecular interactions with precision approaching X-ray crystallography. Through the federated computing platform, thousands of experimentally determined protein–small molecule structures remain securely at their original locations while contributing to a shared learning framework that no single organization could achieve alone. This session reveals how federated learning solves the industry's most persistent challenge: unlocking collective intelligence while protecting intellectual property. ​Attendees will hear directly from consortium leaders about: 

  • The technical architecture enabling privacy-preserving collaborative AI training across competing organizations 
  • Real-world implementation of federated learning platforms and computational governance frameworks 
  • Strategic rationale for industry collaboration: why sharing model training beats going it alone 
  • Impact and outcomes from early OpenFold3 results in predicting binding affinities and accelerating small molecule discovery 
  • The future of collaborative AI in biopharma, from structural biology to clinical development

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!

WHAT HAS BEEN THE TRUE VALUE OF DATA AND DIGITIZATION—AN EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

10:15 am

Organizer's Welcome Remarks

Edel O'Regan, Vice President Conference Production, Cambridge Enertech

10:20 am Chairperson's Remarks

Chris Stumpf, Director, Drug Discovery Informatics Solutions, Revvity

10:25 am FEATURED PRESENTATION:

The Goldilocks of AI

Julie Huxley-Jones, Vice President, Research, Pre-Clinical, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Data Technology, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

We are embracing the transformative power of AI digitalization to drive innovation and operational excellence. Our approach to impacting science and manufacturing is strategic and balanced: a "Goldilocks” approach—not too much, not too little. By leveraging the right tools for the right job, tools that are evolving at an unprecedented pace, we operate with agility, maintain speed, and effectively manage the important balance of compliance, precision, and innovation.

10:55 am FEATURED PRESENTATION:

The Bilingual Scientist—Building the R&D Workforce of 2030

Michel Rider, Global Head, Digital R&D, Sanofi

The pharmaceutical industry stands at a pivotal moment where AI and digital technologies promise $60-110 billion in annual value, but success requires a fundamentally new type of scientist. The "bilingual scientist" combines deep scientific expertise with advanced AI and digital fluency, representing the future of R&D innovation. By 2030, 45% of R&D activities will undergo significant transformation, creating unprecedented opportunities for productivity gains and breakthrough discoveries. This session explores how organizations can build this next-generation workforce through strategic upskilling, targeted hiring, and a four-pillar transformation roadmap that positions science teams to thrive in the AI-driven future.

11:25 am PANEL DISCUSSION:

Executive Panel—Successful Strategies for Digital Transformation in the AI Era

PANEL MODERATOR:

Anastasia Christianson, PhD, Pharma Industry Data Science Leader

  • Digital transformation requires balancing operational efficiency with breakthrough innovation.
  • It’s not only about improving existing processes, but also about redefining them—sometimes eliminating entire steps altogether.
  • Improving target identification is becoming increasingly critical.
  • Leveraging an expanded workforce, including consultants and external specialists, is an emerging trend.
  • Agentic AI: a grounded look at its current realities and practical implications.
  • Digital transformation and AI's impact in the translational sciences and clinical development spaces a theme to be discussed.​
PANELISTS:

Jagat Adhiya, Former Head, IT & Digital Transformation for Pharma R&D and Cell & Gene Therapies, Bayer AG

Julie Huxley-Jones, Vice President, Research, Pre-Clinical, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Data Technology, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Scott Oloff, Vice President, R&D Data Science, Discovery Product Development & Supply, Johnson & Johnson

Michel Rider, Global Head, Digital R&D, Sanofi

Jianchao (JC) Yao, Vice President, Research and Early Development & Technical Operations and Quality Technology, Alnylam

11:55 am AI Alone Will Not Accelerate Science

Christian Olsen, Vice President, Strategy, Protein Therapeutics Luma, Dotmatics Ltd.

AI is accelerating predictions, but labs still run experiments. Biology runs on physical time, and the real constraint is still experimental execution.

Connecting wet lab and digital workflows changes the pace of discovery. When design tools, automation, and data platforms are connected, insights can move directly into the experimental system and results flow back as structured learning.

AI begins to guide experiments in a connected lab. In a closed loop environment, models can help prioritize the next best experiments while scientists focus on interpretation and discovery.

12:25 pm From Data Foundations to Scalable AI: Building the Scientific Data Backbone for R&D Analytics

Brice Sarver, Global Head, Bioinformatics & Director, ZS Discovery, ZS Associates

Deepti Chikkam, Senior Director, Scientific Data Product Line, R&D IT, Merck

As pharmaceutical R&D organizations pursue advanced analytics, AI & machine learning, success increasingly depends on the strength of their scientific data foundations. In this session, we focus on how applying best practices for scientific data, such as standardized data models, rich metadata, governance & semantic consistency, creates the conditions for scalable & trustworthy analytics. We'll highlight how well-designed data foundations support everything from exploratory analysis to production grade analytics by improving data accessibility, interpretability & confidence in results, along with what's top of mind for teams preparing scientific data for AI readiness. Attendees will gain insights into how pharma organizations are operationalizing scientific data best practices to move beyond isolated pilots & build sustainable analytics ecosystems that accelerate insight generation & strengthen decision making.

12:55 pmTransition to Lunch

1:05 pm LUNCHEON PRESENTATION: Unifying Fragmented Systems into Connected Biologics R&D Workflows

Zev Wisotsky, Director, Drug Discovery – Biologics Lead, Revvity Signals

Designing proteins or engineering antibodies often means scattered sequences, lost protocols, and siloed tools. Signals BioDesign solves this with a central hub for all molecular design work—built to connect seamlessly with the wider Signals ecosystem, including Signals One—so your BioDesign projects flow naturally into analytical workflows without creating new data silos.

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!

KNOWLEDGE GRAPHS AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

2:25 pm

Chairperson's Remarks

Juergen Haas, PhD, Director Bioinformatics, Biologics Engineering & Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca

2:30 pm PANEL DISCUSSION:

One Bit at a Time: Agents, MCP, and the Jagged Frontier of Interoperable Science

PANEL MODERATOR:

Tom Plasterer, PhD, CEO & Co-Founder, Knowledge3

Autonomous scientific agents are maturing, yet their real effectiveness depends on semantics, structured knowledge, and interoperable toolchains. At the jagged AI frontier where agents meet real-world R&D, this panel examines how knowledge graphs, GNN-LLM models, and MCP-based systems are emerging as the scaffolding for reliable scientific intelligence. Panelists will share lessons from early deployments, discuss remaining challenges, and propose a community call to action: vendor-provided MCP interfaces and a safe, one-bit “yes/no-only” approach for Non-Animal Methodologies/New-Approach Methodologies (NAM)-aligned, cross-pharma data discovery.

PANELISTS:

Ben Busby, PhD, Global Alliances Manager, Omics, NVIDIA

Arturo J. Morales, PhD, Vice President, Technology Enabled Science, CSL Behring

Helena Deus, PhD, Lead for Semantic Data Products, Bristol Myers Squibb Co.

3:00 pm

Unlocking Product-Development Insights: Harnessing Knowledge Graphs and Ontologies at BMS

Hannah Reck, Senior Manager, Development Excellence Technical Program, Bristol Myers Squibb Co.

Variations in scientific research processes have resulted in data being dispersed across multiple siloed systems at Bristol Myers Squibb. By leveraging the capabilities of knowledge graphs, we are able to seamlessly integrate these previously isolated data sources into a unified, contextualized framework. This enriched data model empowers scientific subject matter experts in product development to discover new insights, foster greater collaboration, and accelerate innovation. Ultimately, this approach enables more informed decision-making and advances BMS’s product development capabilities.

3:30 pm

End-to-End Knowledge Management across Discovery and Research

Laszlo Vasko, Senior Director, Therapeutic Enabling Innovation, R&D IT, Johnson & Johnson

Biomedical discovery and research generate enormous volumes of knowledge, yet much of it remains locked in hard-to-find PowerPoint slides, fragmented analyses, and disconnected data systems. As teams evolve, critical context around what was done, why decisions were made, and which data and models informed them is often lost. This presentation outlines an end-to-end knowledge management capability that spans discovery and research, leveraging knowledge graphs, ontologies, and generative AI to link unstructured content with analytical models and underlying raw data. By integrating directly with workflows, collaboration tools, and decision-support systems, this approach transforms knowledge from static artifacts into a continuously accessible, reusable, and decision-ready asset.

4:00 pm From Point Solutions to Agentic Operations: Scaling CMC Development with Context-Aware Intelligence

Robert Zeigler, PhD, Vice President of Product Development, L7 Informatics, Inc.

Vasu Rangadass, PhD, Founder & CEO, L7 Informatics, Inc.

IT and digital leaders in life sciences face a critical question: can fragmented systems support AI-scale CMC operations? This session examines how L7|ESP and L7|SYNAPSE deliver a unified agentic operating model that connects LIMS, ELN, and MES workflows. A CMC use case demonstrates cross-system orchestration, embedded intelligence, and audit-ready traceability, a practical roadmap for scalable integration.

4:30 pmBest of Show Awards Reception in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing

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

Thursday, May 21

7:00 amRegistration Open

CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST WITH BREAKOUT DISCUSSIONS (IN-PERSON ONLY)

7:00 amConnect & Collaborate: Breakfast Networking Roundtables (Sponsorship Opportunities Available)

Start the day with small-group roundtable discussions designed to spark collaboration and exchange insights across the Bio-IT community. Attendees join themed tables—spanning AI, data ecosystems, foundational models, and more—for focused, peer-driven discussions that foster problem-solving, connection, and cross-functional perspectives ahead of the plenary keynote.

IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 1: Knowledge Graphs

Tom Plasterer, PhD, CEO & Co-Founder, Knowledge3

  • How are knowledge graphs supporting reliable scientific intelligence
  • Lessons from early deployments
  • Remaining challenges and barriers to scale​
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 2: From Molecules to Qubits: A Collaborative Conversation on Pharma’s Quantum Future

Christopher Bishop, Chief Reinvention Officer, Improvising Careers

  • Learn how leading global pharma companies are applying quantum principles to real-world research. 
  • Discover the quantum companies transforming traditional processes around drug development and drug discovery.
  • Discuss how quantum, along with HPC and AI, is poised to help researchers tackle historically intractable problems and potentially find new treatments for diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.​
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 3: From AI Tools to Autonomous Discovery: Are We Ready for Agentic AI in Drug Discovery?

Parthiban Srinivasan, PhD, Professor and Director, Centre for AI in Medicine, Vinayaka Mission's Research Foundation, India

  • Where are we today? Are AI tools truly integrated into workflows, or still operating in silos?
  • What changes with agents? How do LLM-based agents shift drug discovery from prediction to decision-making?
  • What is blocking autonomy? Data quality, validation, trust, or organizational readiness for AI-driven discovery?​
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 4: Bridging Tech Transfer and Industry: Unlocking Real Collaboration at Bio-IT

Nancy Wetherbee, Director Commercialization, Research Innovation Center, Northeastern University

  • Where are the highest-value collaboration opportunities between academia/TTOs and industry (biopharma, startups, AI/data, investors), and what makes them actually work?
  • What types of partnerships are most effective in practice (licensing, co-development, startup creation, sponsored research), and how do both sides evaluate quality and fit quickly?
  • What specific formats, access points, or structures at the Bio-IT event would actually drive follow-up, partnerships, and deal-making?
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 5: Supporting Innovation While Managing Risk: The CIO’s Dilemma in AI-Driven R&D

Chris Dwan, Fractional CIO, Triveni Bio

  • How do CIOs enable rapid AI and data innovation without breaking governance, compliance, or data integrity frameworks?
  • What separates pilot-stage innovation from scalable, production-grade systems? Where do most organizations fail?
  • How do leaders manage emerging risks (model bias, data provenance, regulatory exposure) while still pushing competitive advantage?
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 6: Real-World Data and Evidence: Unlocking Value Beyond Clinical Trials

Michael Liebman, PhD, Managing Director, IPQ Analytics, LLC

  • How real-world data is being used alongside clinical and experimental data
  • Challenges in standardization, access, and regulatory acceptance
  • Opportunities to improve outcomes, access, and long-term patient insights
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 7: Beyond Data Management: Why AI Fails without Institutional Memory in Life Sciences

Alexandra Brocato, CEO & Co-Founder, Beakr, Inc.

  • Why critical experimental knowledge is lost across ELNs, LIMS, and siloed teams, and the cost of reinventing work 
  • How structured experimental memory makes past decisions, failures, and context reusable across teams
  • How organizations can make scientific knowledge reusable for both humans and AI
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 8: Intellectual Property in Biotech: Strategy, Patents, and Trademarks

Elizabeth F. Jackson, Acting Director, Northeast Regional Outreach Office, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

  • How to think strategically about IP early in biotech and AI-driven research
  • Common pitfalls in patent and trademark applications and how to avoid them
  • Navigating ownership, protection, and commercialization of innovations
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 9: Are Bioinformatics Workflows Broken? Rethinking Pipelines in the Age of No-Code and AI

Daniel Clarke, Biomedical Software Developer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

  • Why do current workflow systems fail most scientists in practice? 
  • Can no-code and AI-driven workflows meet standards for reproducibility, validation, and clinical readiness? 
  • What would a “production-ready” workflow ecosystem actually look like across teams and organizations?
IN-PERSON ONLY –

TABLE 10: Data Readiness for AI: Why Most AI Programs Fail Before They Start

Bahador Marzban, PhD, Principal Data Scientist, Innovative Medicine R&D, Johnson & Johnson

  • The gap between AI ambition and the reality of data foundations, platforms, and operating models
  • What “AI‑ready data” actually means in practice—beyond pilots, dashboards, and proofs of concept 
  • Where AI initiatives most often break down: data integration, data quality, metadata, and governance at scale​

PLENARY KEYNOTE PROGRAM

8:00 am

Grab Your Seat! 25th Annual Golden Ticket Prize Giveaway & Organizer’s Remarks*

Cindy Crowninshield, Executive Event Director, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

*Must be present to win.

8:05 am

Bio-IT World 2026 Innovative Practices Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced)

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

Since 2003, Bio-IT World’s Innovative Practices Awards have recognized outstanding technology innovation advancing life sciences research. The 2026 winners highlight excellence in open science, patient advocacy, global data access, and real-world AI through collaborations involving Arizona State University and Starfish Storage, CareDx, ASAP Discovery Consortium, and Novartis with Genedata AG. Together, these projects illustrate the modern R&D data lifecycle, from unlocking legacy data to enabling collaboration and driving clinical decision-making.

8:25 am

Bio-IT World 2026 Emerging Innovator Award—NEW (Winner Announced)

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

The Emerging Innovator Award recognizes one exceptional early-career researcher advancing the future of life sciences through breakthrough work in biomedical data, computational methods, or technology-enabled discovery. The 2026 awardee will deliver a 20-minute plenary keynote at Bio-IT World, highlighting the impact of their research and the forward-looking direction of their work. 

8:35 am

EMERGING INNOVATOR AWARD PRESENTATION: Scalable Connectomics for AI-Ready Brain Data

Ons M'Saad, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, panluminate Inc.

Mapping the brain at synaptic resolution—connectomics—could transform neuroscience, medicine, and AI. Until now, the field has depended on electron microscopy: slow, expensive, difficult to scale, and limited to structure alone. Dr. Ons M’Saad presents a new optical approach that adds molecular context to large-scale brain maps, opening new ways to study neurodegenerative disease and inform more biologically grounded AI.

8:55 am PLENARY KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION:

Trusted Data, Accelerated Science: Building a Context-First Data Foundation for AI in BioPharma

Scott Weiss, Vice President, Product & Strategy, IDBS

As AI reshapes BioPharma R&D, the biggest barrier isn’t the model—it’s the data. Experimental and process data remains fragmented across spreadsheets and siloed systems, often stripped of scientific context. In this introduction, Scott Weiss, VP Product & Strategy at IDBS, argues that a context-first data foundation is essential to AI success, showing how unified, traceable lab data becomes AI-ready, GxP-compliant, and accelerates confident decision-making.

9:05 am PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Generative AI across Drug Discovery Tasks

Jeremy L. Jenkins, PhD, US Head, Discovery Sciences, Novartis BioMedical Research

Many steps in drug discovery are informed by large-scale biological and chemical data, from genomics to the chemical universe, to phenotypic cell profiling. Generative-ML models are increasingly being deployed across these domains, including single-cell foundation models for target discovery, generative chemistry for rapid ligand design, and transfer learning to accelerate image analysis. Practical applications of generative AI in early drug discovery will be described, including simulated functional-genomics screens with in silico perturbations; compound design conditioned on protein pockets; and in silico-labeling approaches that replace traditional image staining. Together, these advances illustrate how generative AI is transforming how drug discovery research is conducted.

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!

ORGANIZING AND CONTRIBUTING TO RELIABLE & QUALITY DATA

10:30 am

Organizer's Remarks

Edel O'Regan, Vice President Conference Production, Cambridge Enertech

10:35 am

Chairperson's Remarks

Juergen Haas, PhD, Director Bioinformatics, Biologics Engineering & Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca

10:40 am

BioRels—Evolving a Data Warehouse into a FAIR Infrastructure 

Jeremy Desaphy, PhD, Senior Director, Scientific Data, Eli Lilly & Company

Drug discovery requires integrating diverse biological, chemical, and genomic data, yet the benefits of robust FAIR practices are often less visible than the effort required to implement them. BioRels changes this by making FAIR both effortless and impactful. Its automated, schema-driven infrastructure standardizes incoming sources, harmonizes ontologies, captures full provenance, and enables reproducible reconstruction across billions of data points. By turning data preparation into a fast, reusable, and transparent process, BioRels removes friction and accelerates key discovery activities—from target identification and validation to mechanism exploration and AI enablement.

11:10 am

The Role of Open-Source Toolkits in Advancing Chemical Registration Systems: A Case Study from Novartis

David Deng, PhD, Technical Associate Director, Molecule Design & Registration, Novartis

In a chemical registration system, the validation and standardization of submitted chemical structures are crucial for ensuring that the deposited representation of registered compounds is accurate, unambiguous, and compliant with internally defined business rules and QA criteria. This aspect of the registration process not only plays a central role in identifying registered chemicals but also significantly contributes to the quality and reliability of data available to downstream applications and users. Over time, for a system already in production, the evolution of validation criteria and standardization rules and their adaptation to evolving requirements necessitate careful consideration and a structured approach to implementation and testing. This presentation discusses recent advancements in the Small Molecule Registration (SMR) product used at Novartis Biomedical Research. It highlights the replacement of the original validation and standardization component with a newly implemented module, which was subsequently published as open-source code and contributed to the RDKit cheminformatics toolkit.

11:40 am

Harmonizing Data Capture Enabling AI/ML

Juergen Haas, PhD, Director Bioinformatics, Biologics Engineering & Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca

Exciting times as big pharma is redefining itself—and pharma-tech companies and data-driven/AI–first approaches are transforming biologics drug discovery. I will show examples of FAIR data flows from instruments to model training, highlighting challenges and solutions and sparking a discussion on where the journey goes.

12:10 pm Running Real-World Computational Chemistry on Real Quantum Computers

Stig Elkjaer Rasmussen, Senior Quantum Algorithms Scientist, Kvantify

Adam Baskerville, Lead Quantum Research Engineer, Kvantify

Late-stage drug failure is frequently linked to inadequate prediction of binding kinetics and limited access to reaction-level accuracy. Here, we present Kvantify Koffee, which enables rapid estimation of unbinding kinetics to inform lead optimization, with applications in binding stability and mechanism analysis. We then introduce Kvantify Qrunch for quantum chemistry on quantum computers, and demonstrate their integration using Thermolysin as a model system. In particular, we show that while classical unbinding-based scoring can misrank highly charged ligands, quantum-computing–derived energies correct these deficiencies, substantially improving ranking accuracy. Together, this establishes a unified classical–quantum workflow for drug discovery.

12:40 pm Enabling FAIR Data with Data Products and Ontology-Aligned Reference Data

Michael Smart, Senior Director Customer Success, Astrix

Jessica Virani, Senior Data Scientist, Process Development, Amgen Inc.

A major barrier to finding and reusing scientific data is the lack of well-curated, contextually relevant reference data, terminologies, and ontologies. This talk examines how high-quality ontology-aligned reference data and data products enable FAIR data, and large-scale analysis. It also explores how AI can accelerate concept extraction and semantic alignment, helping experts build scalable, reliable reference data frameworks while addressing practical limitations and governance considerations.

1:10 pmSession Break and Transition to Lunch

1:20 pm LUNCHEON PRESENTATION: From Pathology to Pathways: Scaling and Accelerating Discovery with Foundation Models

Cera Fisher, Scientific Program Manager, Seven Bridges, Velsera

Translating static histological images into actionable biological insights remains a primary bottleneck in precision medicine. We present a modular H&E-to-multiomic discovery engine that leverages foundation models to bridge the gap between clinical histology and molecular discovery. By integrating these models with spatial and molecular profiling, the Seven Bridges Platform transforms routine slides into rich, analysis-ready data layers without extensive manual annotation, substantially shortening the path from clinical observation to biological insight.

1:50 pmRefreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with 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.

SCALING AI INSIGHTS INTO REAL-WORLD CLINICAL IMPACT

2:30 pm

Chairperson's Remarks

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

2:35 pm

Three Steps to Success: Framework for Optimizing AI’s Impact on Drug Development

Umut Eser, PhD, Head, Generative AI, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

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

Based on extensive research, this presentation explores the three leading ways AI can accelerate the drug development process while substantially reducing costs. We provide a framework for considering how to deploy these capabilities in research and clinical while setting out (i.) the supporting evidence base and (ii.) the remaining challenges to be overcome. Our priority is to provide the audience with practical ways to positively impact their own drug development processes.

3:05 pm PANEL DISCUSSION:

Beyond Discovery: Turning AI Insights into Real-World Clinical Impact

PANEL MODERATOR:

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

PANELISTS:

Anastasia Christianson, PhD, Pharma Industry Data Science Leader

Charmaine Demanuele, PhD, Vice President, R&D Data Science & Digital Health - Neuroscience, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

Arturo J. Morales, PhD, Vice President, Technology Enabled Science, CSL Behring

Alexander Sherman, Director, Center for Innovation and Bioinformatics, Massachusetts General Hospital

Nagaraja "Sri" Srivatsan, CEO, Endpoint Clinical, Inc.

While AI dominates early-stage drug discovery discussions, pharmaceutical organizations struggle to connect these innovations to downstream clinical operations and real-world patient care. This panel tackles three critical gaps in current AI implementation: 1) integrating AI across R&D functions from target identification through clinical development, 2) leveraging digital health platforms and AI as the bridge between research insights and patient outcomes, and 3) enabling cross-team collaboration and external partnerships through shared AI infrastructure. Industry leaders from biopharma, hospitals, and digital health will debate what it really takes to break down silos between discovery, development, clinical, and commercial teams. Through candid discussion of real implementations, panelists will explore how to build communication channels that connect internal teams with external partners (hospitals, payers, and patients), creating an AI ecosystem that delivers measurable impact across the full therapeutic lifecycle.

4:05 pmClose of Conference





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T1: Data Platforms & Storage Infrastructure