by Michael D.O’Neill
The Bio-IT World Conference & Expo 2024 (April 15-17) concluded in Boston on Wednesday, April 17, and once again featured presentations in ten Bio-IT focused conference tracks: AI for Drug Discovery and Development; AI for Oncology, Precision Medicine, and Health; Bioinformatics; Cloud Computing; Data Management; Data Science and Analytics Technologies; Generative AI; Modern Data Platforms and Storage Infrastructure; Pharmaceutical R&D Informatics; and Software Applications and Services. The theme of this 23rd annual conference is “Building a Global Network for Precision Medicine.” The event has attracted nearly 3,000 attendees (in-person and virtual) from 30-plus countries around the world. A description of the ten conference tracks can be found here and a discussion of certain of Wednesday’s sessions, including awards, is given below.
VENTURE, INNOVATION, & PARTNERING
A separate Bio-IT World event (Venture, Innovation, & Partnering) was also held on Wednesday at the same venue in Boston. This exclusive event is tailor-made for Venture Capitalists, Private Equity professionals, Bank Investors, and CEOs steering the helm of Tech Bio, Bio-Tech, and Large Pharma enterprises. It is intended to foster collaboration, encourage the sharing of insights on strategic investments in cutting-edge technologies, and enable a comprehensive understanding of the latest funding activities and noteworthy exits. The sessions offer an unparalleled opportunity to delve into the intricate landscape of biotech investments, discover who is leading the charge in groundbreaking technologies, and explore the commercialization of emerging solutions tackling industry challenges head-on. Topics covered included Investment Trends in Bio-IT, CEO Perspectives on Raising Capital, AI As Investable Thesis for Drug R&D and Commercialization, Building a Data Science Organization: Effectiveness and Impact, Nurturing Innovation: Biotech Incubator Investments, and Boston and Cambridge- Biotech Hub—How to Sustain As an Investment Powerhouse? This was an in-person only event.
SAMPLING OF WEDNESDAY’S PRESENTATIONS AT BIO-IT WORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO 2024
“Innovative Practices Awards” 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 2024 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 AstraZeneca, DNAnexus, Pistoia Alliance, Regeneron, Tempus, and UK Biobank.
“PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION Lights, Camera, Science: Film and Social Media Influence on Real-World Scientific Progress and Innovation” was delivered by David Hewlett, Actor/Writer/Director; Creator TechBandits.org; CaNERDian. Now, more than ever, life sciences are subject to misinterpretation, reduction, and inaccuracies at the hands of social media and Hollywood. And while it might be tempting to ignore the fake science streaming on YouTube and TikTok, there’s a generation of would-be investigators for whom those platforms might be their primary introduction to research and discovery. David Hewlett has had his share of big screen roles representing science—and science fiction—and he believes it’s imperative that the scientific and technology communities take back the narrative, filling gaps between what’s real and what could be real soon! He’s meeting this future generation where they are in schools, on YouTube, and on Twitch, championing real science in all its iterative, messy, exploratory glory, to recruit bright, diverse minds to lead the next generation of real scientists. He’s got our report from the front lines.
“Quantum Computing for Precision Medicine: A New Era of Healthcare” was presented by Federico Pirovano, CEO & Founder, Dynius. In this talk, I will discuss my research on using quantum computing and quantum neural networks for precision medicine. We are exploring two use cases: i) personalized treatment of knee osteoarthritis, and ii) neurodegenerative disease early diagnosis from brain MRI. I will briefly present our validation study “A quantum-enhanced precision medicine application to support data-driven clinical decisions for the personalized treatment of advanced knee osteoarthritis: development and preliminary validation of precisionKNEE_QNN” (recently included in the prestigious reviews from Oxford Academic) and discuss the potential impact of this work on the future of precision medicine. I will also discuss our ongoing R&D project on using quantum computing to predict effective brain age from MRI data for precision medicine in neurodegenerative diseases.
“Unveiling the Future: Strategic Investment Opportunities in Biotech & Drug Discovery” was presented by Scott Penberthy, CTO of Google, who unveiled groundbreaking insights for investors in biotechnology and drug discovery. Penberthy set the tone and theme of the day by exploring investment trends in these dynamic fields. With a visionary discussion on the transformative power of AI-driven initiatives in healthcare, attendees gained valuable perspectives on how technologies like AI, next-generation sequencing, and cloud computing are reshaping drug development.
“PANEL DISCUSSION: Unlocking the Future: Emerging Investment Trends in Bio-IT” In recent years, Bio-IT investment has surged, attracting diverse stakeholders. Explore the spectrum of investors, from venture capitalists to institutional funds. Discover the pivotal role of pharmaceutical companies and the technologies commanding investment interest, from AI-driven drug discovery to quantum computing innovations. Dive into the evolving landscape where opportunity meets innovation at the forefront of biotech advancement.
“PANEL DISCUSSION: Strategies for Biotech Success: Insights on Raising Capital from CEOs and VCs” Five speakers participated in this panel. This presentation offered invaluable perspectives on raising capital in the dynamic biotech landscape. Delve into recent shifts in capital acquisition, anticipate market expectations into late 2024/early 2025, and gain insights on selecting the right investor amidst competitive markets. Navigate R&D expectations and explore strategies for differentiation while effectively managing execution and board dynamics. Triangulate decisions for sustainable growth and success in the biotech sector.
“Innovative Practices Awards: Excellence in Technological Innovation” 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 2024 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 AstraZeneca, DNAnexus, and Pistoia Alliance. The awards were announced by Cindy Crowninshield, Executive Event Director, Bio-IT World/Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI).
“CO-PRESENTATION: Unveiling the Potential of Phytochemicals in Drug Development—Holistic Insights Through Digital Twins, in Silico Design, and Virtual Trials” Eight speakers participated in this presentation. Open Health Systems Laboratory (OHSL), as part of its Ayurveda Developmental Therapeutics Program (ADTP), has brought together an international team science consortium. The members of the consortium have been working together on developing an in silico workflow for (a) identifying phytochemicals with potential of therapeutic properties, (b) leveraging click chemistry to conjugate with antibodies or other therapeutic candidate molecules to improve efficacy, potency, and reduce side effects; (c) binding to proteins and active site(s) of receptors; (d) computer based drug design to be used for integrative medicine among other therapeutic potential; (e) virtual clinical trials in the initial stages with an eye towards further development in the clinic; and (f) using a cohort of digital siblings to propose new candidate molecules for new drugs based on analog development as supported in digital siblings space.
“From Ideas to Patients: How AI Is Changing AstraZeneca’s Approach to Toxicology” was presented by Nick Brown, Executive Head of CPSS Imaging and Data Analytics, AstraZeneca. Understanding the safety of new medicines is a fundamental part of the drug discovery process. Traditional methods of assessing the potential risks of new molecular entities are time-consuming and are becoming both economically and ethically unattractive. Artificial intelligence offers the ability to not only improve efficiency and reduce costs, but also to enhance our ability to detect safety liabilities and mechanistically interpret the signals we identify. This presentation will showcase some of the challenges we face and how those at AstraZeneca are looking to apply AI in toxicology to deliver new medicines to our patients.
“500K Whole-Genome Sequencing Data Release on UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (Powered by DNAnexus) (Innovative Practices Awards Winner: Global Impact Award Category)” was described by Nasha Collins, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Biobanks, DNAnexus. In November 2023, UK Biobank unveiled incredible new whole-genome sequencing data from all of its 500,000 participants – and, in a landmark for medical research, it has made the data globally available via a purpose-built, cloud-based platform. After five years and over £200 million of investment, this was the most ambitious genetic sequencing project of its kind ever undertaken. The abundance of genomic data is unparalleled, but its real value comes from being combined with the existing wealth of data UK Biobank has collected from its participants over the past 15 years on their health and lifestyle, and from whole body imaging scans and proteins found in the blood. Securely sharing this amount of complex health data, over 30 petabytes, had not been done before. DNAnexus and UK Biobank built an online research analysis platform allowing approved, global researchers to access the secure data, and also gave them the required tools to analyze the de-identified data. Today, over 30,000 researchers from more than 90 countries are registered to use UK Biobank.
“Automated High-Throughput Flow Cytometry (HTFC) Data Processing Pipeline (Innovative Practices Awards Winner: Informatics to Achieve Operational Excellence Category)” The work was described by Ronald Realubit, Principal Scientific Business Analyst (Therapeutic Ab Development), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Regeneron created a high-throughput screening platform that allows its scientists to test multiple conditions simultaneously with a highly sensitive assay technology for antibody characterization. The Automated High-Throughput Flow Cytometry (HTFC) Data Processing Pipeline supports this platform by replacing manual scientist data workflows with a combination of engineering, automation, and self-service. Built on a foundation of existing applications and tools in Regeneron’s IT ecosystem, this pipeline is driven by configuration files created automatically by the scientists themselves through interactive dashboards. As a result, Regeneron scientists focus on the biological relevance of experiments while modified data processing scripts and metadata tagging workflows run in the background. The pipeline automates complex data processing steps while also delivering a more pleasant and effective quality control experience. This project allows Regeneron to choose a complex data-rich assay for routine screenings of its antibodies and accelerate lead antibody discovery for Regeneron to find new medicines.
“TIDES: Transforming Information with Digital Experimental Solutions (Innovative Practices Awards Winner: Informatics to Achieve Operational Excellence Category)” The work was described by Kristian Kolakowski, Principal Business Analyst, Regeneron, and Patrick Leblanc, Director, Business Relationship Management, Regeneron. Regeneron scientists partnered with IT engineers to implement a voice-to-text (VTT) solution, LabVoice, to solve an industry-wide challenge—digitizing scientific information in lab environments—and went a step further by creating custom analytics dashboards that provide live, actionable insights based on the data. They began by implementing custom low-code workflows on their scientists’ mobile devices, eliminating the need for memorization and transcription, while standardizing and optimizing their processes for data quality and searchability. As of today, LabVoice has effectively captured more than 174,000 data points, both automated and manual. The data is used to understand the number of new litters, test subject attributes, and natural breeding trends across facilities. Ultimately, this solution has delivered hands-free data capture for Regeneron research scientists, while providing key insights from the data.
“Harnessing Evolutionary Wisdom: ML-Powered Strategies for Therapeutic Innovation via Natural Animal Models of Disease Resistance” was presented by Linda Goodman, Founder & CTO, Fauna Bio. Some mammals have naturally evolved strategies to prevent or reverse disease pathologies common in humans, including the ability to repair fibrotic scar tissue, drastically alter metabolic rate, and regrow neurons. At Fauna Bio, its scientists use machine learning approaches, a unique dataset, and its custom Graph Neural Network (GNN) trained on our proprietary biomedical knowledge graph to design therapies that allow humans to tap into the protective and regenerative strategies from 100 million years of mammal evolution. Learn about nonconventional approaches to drug discovery and development, utilizing ML-powered strategies.
“AI’s Impact in Drug Discovery: What the Future Holds” was presented by Yiannis Kiachopoulos, CEO and Co-Founder, Causaly. LLM technologies, Knowledge Graphs, and AI are accelerating R&D transformation in research organizations. This talk explored the pivotal point we stand at today as LLMs enable us to unlock ever more R&D productivity, and will look ahead at the immense opportunity available, and what it will take to get there.
“End-to-End Acceleration for AI & Drug Discovery” Explore how two leading biotech companies and a top cloud company are fast-tracking pharmaceutical R&D. Insilico Medicine discussed the use of generative AI to cut costs/time in producing life-saving medications. Meliora Therapeutics detailed scaling a multi-modal AI-powered mechanism deconvolution platform to change the oncology drug development lifecycle. Oracle tied it all together to share how its partnership with NVIDIA is helping fuel the drug discovery ecosystem.
“Harness MemGPT to Optimize LLMs for Drug Discovery & Development Language Tasks, Boosting Efficiency & Effectiveness” was presented by Sreeni Reddy, Associate Vice President, Birlasoft. Traditional drug discovery & development is time and resource-intensive, trying to understand mechanisms leading to diseases and the purpose of possible targets or proteins. Less control over the output sequences can result in lead candidates with suboptimal binding or poor developability attributes. In this session, we demonstrate the potential of zero-shot Generative AI to significantly increase the speed, quality, and controllability of design & automation in the drug development process.
“Leverage Genomic AI to Deliver a More Accurate and Comprehensive Genome” was presented by Min Li, Senior Director of Product Management, Illumina. Illumina is leading Genomic AI to understand the human genome and provide insights out of large-scale human genomic data. Cutting-edge AI algorithms developed by the Illumina Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have been integrated into the entire genomic workflow resulting in increased accuracy and efficiency in data analysis and interpretation. This integration holds immense potential to bolster drug discovery efficiency, provide deeper clinical insights and more accurate genetic risk prediction.
“Advanced Analytics for Accelerating Ion Channel Drug Discovery” was presented by Nathan Zahler, Senior Informatics Scientist, OmniAb, Inc. High-throughput electrophysiology (HTEP) provides high-content data critical for developing functional antibodies and small molecules targeting ion channels and opportunities to create new therapeutics. For full drug discovery campaigns, complex analysis and QC require large time commitments from PhD scientists. OmniAb’s analytics system leverages multiple platforms, custom dashboards, and AI/ML for analysis and QC at scale, while maintaining flexibility to rapidly pursue new analyses and identify emergent properties in the data.
“Accelerating Cancer Research with Powerful AI Infrastructure: Fireside Chat with Eikon Therapeutics and Quantum” was presented by Andy LeSage, Vice President, WW Solutions Engineering, Quantum Corporation, and John Leonardini, Principal Storage Engineer, Eikon Therapeutics. Eikon Therapeutics conducts groundbreaking research that generates massive amounts of data which is then leveraged by powerful AI workflows. This data requires extreme performance to capture and process insights and a large-scale archive to store the outcomes and raw data for future use. Eikon and Quantum discussed how technology plays a critical role in Eikon’s research, and the requirements for an end-to-end AI infrastructure to further their mission.
“Enhancing Precision Health Data Discoverability & Usability: The Collaborative Efforts of DNAnexus and Panomics” was presented by Nirav Amin, Director, Solutions Science, DNAnexus. Explore how to empower researchers by streamlining data cataloging and ensuring adherence to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles and GxP compliance. Through case studies, the speaker demonstrated the transformative impact of technologies on data management, emphasizing enhanced accessibility, interoperability, and innovation in biopharmaceutical R&D. Delve into the collaborative efforts of DNAnexus and Panomics, showcasing their solutions for managing, analyzing and collaborating on multimodal data nested under the safeguards of TREs.
“Propelling Novel Insights across Therapeutic Portfolio from Single-Cell Atlases” was presented by Aleksandar Stojmirovic, Director, Data Science, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, and Sirisha Sunkara, Associate Director, Translational Data Engineering & Solutions, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. Unlocking the complexities of cellular landscapes through single-cell atlases offers profound insights into tissue and disease dynamics, informing therapeutic strategies. However, integrating diverse datasets poses significant challenges. While metadata-driven approaches streamline integration, distinguishing biological signals from technical artifacts is crucial. Bridging this gap requires a robust ecosystem of portals and visualization tools tailored for multidisciplinary teams. Our integrated solution addresses these hurdles, enhancing pharmaceutical research’s translational potential.
“FIRESIDE CHAT: Discover Arena BioWorks” Lisa Hughes, News Anchor, WBZ-TV News, CBS Boston, joined Stephen Pagliuca, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Arena, for a discussion of Arena BioWorks. Arena BioWorks is a privately funded biomedical institute committed to revolutionizing healthcare solutions. Steve Pagliuca, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Arena BioWorks, leverages his vast experience in private equity and biotech investment to accelerate innovation with independence. Pagliuca’s strategic prowess ensures optimal asset allocation and company exits, fostering a vision for groundbreaking biomedical research and therapeutics. Join Hughes and Pagliuca at our investment-focused fireside chat.
“PANEL DISCUSSION: Nurturing Innovation & Investment in Early-Stage Biotech and Bio-IT” Six scientists participated in this panel. Amidst the burgeoning landscape of life science and healthcare innovation, the panel discussion explored the pivotal role of incubators in nurturing start-ups. Health data and AI technologies, alongside expertise-sharing, foster unprecedented opportunities. Insights from pharma, vendors, and investors emphasize criteria for start-up selection, highlighting early access and impact investing. Incubators—led effectively—drive innovation, bridge research-to-patient gap, and generate revenue, creating a mutually beneficial scenario in the healthcare ecosystem.
“Trends from the Trenches” was presented by Ari Berman, CEO, BioTeam Inc, and Laura Boykin Okalebo, Senior Scientific Consultant, BioTeam, Inc. Since 2010, “Trends from the Trenches” has been one of the most popular annual traditions in the Bio-IT program. The intent of the talk was to deliver a candid (and occasionally blunt) assessment of the best, the most worthwhile, and the most overhyped information technologies (IT) for life sciences. Learn about computing, storage, data transfer, networks, cloud, data science, machine learning, and more that are involved in supporting data-intensive science.
“PANEL DISCUSSION: How to Sustain Massachusetts As a Bio-Tech Hub and Investment Powerhouse?” Six experts participated in this panel. Explore the nuances of sustaining biotech investment prowess in a concise panel discussion tailored for investors. Delve into the advantages and drawbacks of investing in a hub, with a focus on the pivotal role of ARPA-H Boston. Examine biotech sustainability through talent attraction and retention, as demonstrated by the launches of Portal Innovation and Biomedical Institute. Highlight the vital contributions of large pharmaceutical companies and hospitals in Boston and Cambridge. Gain insights from key stakeholders in the Massachusetts biotech ecosystem, evaluate the necessity of biotech hubs, and uncover strategies for scaling beyond Boston and Cambridge while addressing potential threats to industry dominance.
END OF MEETING
This ended the 23rd Annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo 2024, which, with 3,000 attendees from 30-plus countries and over 200 presentations and myriad networking/collaboration opportunities, was another enormous success for science and biotech.
