Pharmaceutical companies are undergoing a digital transformation. By experimenting with new initiatives, they are positioned to play a role in the revolution of healthcare. This transformation is driven by data from internal and external sources, including both -omic data and that from digital devices. Bio-IT World WEST, part of Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference, brings together all the stakeholders involved in this transformation. Your registration includes the option to track-hop to the other programs at the Molecular Med TRI-CON as well as the Hackathon, plenary keynote, exhibit/poster hall, and more!

Every facet of healthcare and medicine now generates and has access to enormous amounts of data from across sources, organizations, and the world. The pharmaceutical industry plays a key role in driving informatics for translational research and precision medicine. The 12th Annual Digitalization of Pharma R&D conference will discuss the challenges related to integrating, analyzing, and interpreting data from clinical trials, sequencing, electronic health records, and wearables. We will discuss informatics strategy for entire organizations from business goals to infrastructure and storage projects. Special attention will be paid to artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and how companies are integrating these tools into their informatics infrastructure. Join informatics experts from pharma, biotech, and biomedical research communities to discuss these challenges and real-world examples of informatics projects driving precision medicine.

Final Agenda

Monday, March 2

10:30 Conference Program Registration Open

KEYNOTE SESSION

(please see Keynote pages for details)

11:45 Organizer’s Opening Remarks

Cindy Crowninshield, RDN, LDN, HHC, Executive Event Director, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

11:50 Chairperson’s Remarks

Allison ProffittAllison Proffitt, Editorial Director, Bio-IT World


11:55 Keynote Introduction, Benchling

Ashoka Rajendra, Head, Product, Registry, Inventory, Benchling


12:10 pm KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: The AI Bubble and the Emerging Thinking Economy

Michelucci PietroPietro Michelucci, PhD, Director, Human Computation Institute

This presentation presents a realistic assessment of the “AI bubble” – where there is value, where there is hype, and how human-in-the-loop computing gives us futuristic AI capabilities today that co-evolve with AI technology and even help improve AI.

12:40 PANEL DISCUSSION: Data Quality in Human Computation Systems

Is today’s artificial intelligence fervor based on hype or is it happening? We’ve seen some amazing results from AI-based systems, fueled by increases in processing speed that render traditional applications finally practicable. At the same time, powerful new techniques are emerging including fruitful human/AI partnerships and recent successes based on combining crowdsourcing with machine learning. These new methods dovetail nicely with special challenges posed by precision medicine, often entailing complex interdependencies among data acquisition, analysis, privacy, and ethics. That said, they also introduce a new set of challenges as we navigate issues of transparency, trust, and reliability where automated systems are involved. This panel will discuss recent work in online collective systems that combine human and machine-based information processing in the biomedical space, how these systems could be applied to precision medicine, and how to avoid some of the potential pitfalls associated with these approaches. We also discuss an information processing ecosystem designed to accelerate precision medicine research while mitigating associated complexity and resource needs.

Moderator:

Allison ProffittAllison Proffitt, Editorial Director, Bio-IT World


Jennifer CouchPanelists: Jennifer Couch, PhD, Chief, Structural Biology and Molecular Applications Branch, Division of Cancer Biology and Citizen Science Coordinator, National Cancer Institute


Krotman_DevinDevin Krotman, Director, IBM Watson AI XPRIZE


Mandavi_VaniVani Mandava, Director, Data Science Outreach, Microsoft Research


Michelucci_PietroPietro Michelucci, PhD, Director, Human Computation Institute


Tsueng_GingerGinger Tsueng, PhD, Scientific Outreach Project Manager, Department of Integrative, Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute


 

Amazon 1:30 Bio-IT World WEST Luncheon Presentation: Accelerating the Exchange of Data in Healthcare and Life Sciences

Fred Lee, MD, MPH, Head of Health Care, Life Sciences Business Development, AWS Data Exchange, AWS

Predictive models and algorithms in healthcare and life sciences (HCLS) have emerged from the combination of patient data and advanced analytics. With machine learning and AI technologies becoming commoditized, scalable access to patient data now throttles the build of such predictive analytics. We will discuss how the AWS Data Exchange, as a digital marketplace for data, addresses this ‘data bottleneck’ by accelerating data exchange in a regulatory compliant, economically sustainable, and cloud-native manner.

2:05 Session Break

FEATURED SESSION: BUILDING A STRONG DATA FOUNDATION

2:20 Chairperson’s Remarks

Alan S. Louie, PhD, Research Director, Life Sciences, IDC Health Insights

2:25 Running Too Fast with AI, Pitfalls of Bad Data

Khan_FaisalFaisal Khan, PhD, Executive Director, Advanced Analytics and AI, AstraZeneca

The use of artificial intelligence and data science approaches and technologies is experiencing explosive growth in the pharmaceutical industry. The plethora of opportunities provide an exciting range of applications to explore. However, as the field has grown, many folks are employing and leveraging AI without keeping in mind the rigors required for good science, including preparing the data and how it’s analyzed. At the end of the data, it’s still garbage in/garbage out.

2:55 Building Data Science Teams for Pharma – Myths and Realities

Mustaqhusain Kazi, Head of Personalized Healthcare, Pharma Informatics, Genetech

It is hoped that combining real-world data with sophisticated statistical and machine learning algorithms could lead to realizing the dream of personalized healthcare. In order to make this dream a reality, data scientists need to embrace organizational data and methodological complexities not commonly encountered elsewhere. In this talk, the speaker would share his experiences in building data science teams ready to tackle the challenge of delivering personalized healthcare for everyone.

3:25 Leveraging Omics for Discovery and Development of New Drugs

Jacob_HowardHoward J. Jacob, PhD, Vice President and Head, Genomic Research, Drug Discovery Science & Technology, Distinguished Research Fellow, Abbvie


3:55 Lightweight, Practical Cross-Domain Metadata 

Chris Dwan, Senior Technologist and Independent Life Sciences Consultant 

It is increasingly clear that robust metadata management is one of the keys to unlocking the potential of biomedical data. Creating and enforcing usable standards for this metadata without stifling innovation and productivity or violating compliance requirements is a crucial balancing act with both technical and non-technical components. This talk will discuss real-world examples of metadata systems in use for sequencing, sample management, clinical phenotypes, diagnostic reports, and even analytical provenance chains from computational pipelines.  

4:25 Refreshment Break and Transition to Plenary Keynote


PLENARY KEYNOTE SESSION

(please see Keynote pages for details)

4:35 Welcome Remarks

Cindy Crowninshield, RDN, LDN, HHC, Executive Event Director, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

4:45 PLENARY KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION

Thomas Westerling-Bui, PhD, Senior Scientist, Regional Business Development, Aiforia

5:00 PLENARY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: High-Performance Medicine

Eric Topol, MD, Founder and Director, Scripps Research Translational Institute (SRTI); Author, Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again

 

 

 

 

6:00 Grand Opening Reception in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing, Speed Networking, Book Signing, and Meetup Group

7:30 End of Day

Tuesday, March 3

7:30 am Registration Open and Morning Coffee

KEYNOTE SESSION

(please see Keynote pages for details)

8:00 Organizer’s Remarks

Cindy Crowninshield, RDN, LDN, HHC, Executive Event Director, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

8:05 NEW: Chairperson’s Remarks

Annastasiah Mudiwa Mhaka, PhD, Founder and Principal, Mawambo Lifesciences; Co-Founder, Convenor and Former President, Alliance for AI in Healthcare (AAIH)

 

8:10 Keynote Sponsor Introduction

Rangadass_VasuVasu Rangadass, President, CEO, L7 Informatics, Inc.

 

 

 

8:25 KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: AI and Big Data Strategies in Accelerating Clinical Research for Faster Rare Disease Cures

Rajasimhja HarshaHarsha Rajasimha, MS, PhD, Founder, Jeeva Informatics Solutions, Inc.; Founder and Chairman, IndoUSrare; Co-Director, Rare Diseases Systems Biology Initiative, George Mason University

After losing a child to a rare congenital disease, Dr. Rajasimha became determined to apply his clinical genomics data research experience to develop solutions to help accelerate clinical research leading to faster cures for rare disease. Dr. Rajasimha will discuss his efforts in fostering collaborative bridges between patient advocacy groups and researchers in the USA and their counterparts in India to help accelerate clinical research, trials, and therapy access across borders. The talk will include recent global initiatives to accelerate screening, diagnosis, and treatments of rare and undiagnosed diseases. He will also share work on the development of an AI-driven digital health platform to improve clinical trial operational efficiencies while significantly reducing costs and travel burden on patients.

8:55 PANEL DISCUSSION: Applications of AI Technologies in Pharmaceuticals: Facilitating Development of Therapeutics in Treating Rare Diseases

The complex research framework involving industry, academia, and government to discover and develop new therapeutic products makes drug discovery a laborious process. With rapid strides that life sciences companies are making in the fields of gene and cell therapies, -omics technologies, and smart molecule approaches, an urgent need exists for cost-effective, time-effective, and advanced technologies to analyze large databases of information to help develop novel therapies. Organizations are recognizing the value of AI-based platforms and tools to leverage data to find hidden drug-disease correlations. Also, structured and unstructured data can be derived from multiple sources as never before. This panel brings senior level experts in pharma, AI-based technology, and government to discuss the role of AI platforms and tools to establish a robust pipeline as part of drug discovery portfolio and address new therapeutic areas, including rare diseases.

Mhaka_AnnastasiahNEW: Moderator: Annastasiah Mudiwa Mhaka, PhD, Founder and Principal, Mawambo Lifesciences; Co-Founder, Convenor and Former President, Alliance for AI in Healthcare (AAIH)

 


Defay_TomPanelists: Tom Defay, Senior Director, R&D Strategy and Alliances, SPMD, Strategy, Program Management and Data Sciences, Alexion


Rajasimhja_HarshaHarsha Rajasimha, MS, PhD, Founder, Jeeva Informatics Solutions, Inc.; Founder and Chairman, IndoUSrare; Co-Director, Rare Diseases Systems Biology Initiative, George Mason University


Rangadass_VasuVasu Rangadass, President, CEO, L7 Informatics, Inc.


 

9:40 Refreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing, Speed Networking, Book Signing, and Meetup Group

WORK SMARTER (NOT HARDER) WITH YOUR DATA

10:40 Chairperson’s Remarks

Pankaj Agarwal, Chief Computational Biologist, BioInfi

10:45 Advancing the Use of Real World Data to Support R&D and Personalized Healthcare

Copping_RyanRyan Copping, PhD, Global Head of Analytics, PHC Data Science, Personalized Healthcare (PHC), Product Development, Roche & Genentech

Generating insights from Real World Data (RWD) is a critical success factor for personalized healthcare. This presentation will look at some of the advancements being made in terms of data (access/growth/quality/linkages, etc.), analytics and technology and will share some specific examples from Roche/Genentech’s R&D efforts as well some of the challenges and opportunities for the future.

11:15 NEW: CO-PRESENTATION: Target Identification and Drug Repurposing: From Machine Learning Theory to Practical Experience

Agarwal_PankajPankaj Agarwal, Chief Computational Biologist, BioInfi


Rajpal_DeepakDeepak Kumar Rajpal, PhD, Head, Bioinformatics, Translational Sciences, Sanofi

AI and Machine Learning are being widely used in drug discovery, yet there are significant challenges because of the lack of training examples in the biological data space. We will show three case studies examining the same problem from different angles and using different methods. You will see the limitations of each approach and how different validation schemes impact results.

Presentation delivered via a live, interactive video conferencing platform.

11:45 Massively Multitask Profile-QSAR: Applications of Experiment-Quality Models for >8500 Novartis Biochemical And Cellular Assays 

Eric Martin, PhD, Director, Computer Aided Drug Design, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc. 

Profile-QSAR predicts biological activity with unprecedented accuracy and applicability domain by combining 20 million IC50 measurements from 2 million compounds covering 12,000 assays. The 8600 “successful” models have average accuracy comparable to 4-concentration IC50 experiments. Models are updated monthly, storing 60 billion predictions for 5.5 million compounds in a databricks database. It has been applied to 150 projects for virtual screening, selectivity design, tox and MoA prediction, and more.  

12:15 pm Session Break

CAS_New 12:20 BIO-IT WORLD WEST CO-LUNCHEON PRESENTATION I: Describing Chemistry to Algorithms: Why Scientific Expertise Improves Accuracy

Lee_AlphaAlpha Lee, PhD, Doctor, Physics, University of Cambridge


McBride_MatthewMatthew McBride, MS, Director, Science IP, CAS

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a chemical structure is worth thousands of features.  Join Dr. Alpha Lee from the University of Cambridge to see how impactful descriptors are on predictions.  If your AI initiatives aren’t meeting expectations, see how better representations of chemistry structures improve algorithm performance.  CAS descriptors are derived from centuries of scientific knowledge and are proven to improve AI accuracy.

Zifo 12:50 BIO-IT WORLD WEST LUNCHEON PRESENTATION II: Towards the Digital Lab

Paul Denny Gouldson, Chief Digital Officer, Digital Solutions, Zifo RnD Solutions

1:20 Refreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing, Speed Networking, Book Signing, and Meetup Group

2:00 Breakout Discussions in the Exhibit Hall (please click 3:00 Transition to Keynote Session

KEYNOTE SESSION

(please see Keynote pages for details)

3:15 Organizer’s Remarks

Christina Lingham, Executive Director, Conferences and Fellow, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

3:20 Keynote Introduction

Allison Mallory, PhD, Director, R&D Molecular Biology, Stilla Technologies

3:35 What Does the New Era of Genomic Medicine Look Like? Effects on Patient Care, Therapeutics, and Diagnostics

20 years after the completion of the first draft of the Human Genome Project, there is compelling evidence of genomics delivering the rich promise of precision medicine. There have been major advances in the throughput and affordability of genome sequencing, enhanced tools for genome analysis and interpretation, new paradigms for therapeutics and strong signs of clinical benefit using genome editing. But major challenges remain. In this special plenary roundtable, three established pioneers of genomic medicine – David Haussler, Stephen Kingsmore, and Liz Worthey – offer their insights on the extraordinary advances in genomic medicine over the past 1-2 decades and share their hopes and concerns for the future of our field.

Davies_KevinModerator: Kevin Davies, PhD, Executive Editor, The CRISPR Journal, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.


Kingsmore_StephenPanelists: Stephen Kingsmore, MD, DSc, President/CEO, Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine


Haussler_DavidDavid Haussler, PhD, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Distinguished Professor, Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz; Scientific Director, UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute; Scientific Co-Director, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3)


Worthey_LizElizabeth Worthey, PhD, Director, Genomic Medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham School of Medicine


4:50 Spring Fling Celebration in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing, Speed Networking, Book Signing, and Meetup Group

6:00 End of Day

Wednesday, March 4

6:45 am Registration Open

7:00 BREAKFAST PANEL DISCUSSION: The Time is NOW: Creating Meaningful Change for Women in the Workplace (Sponsorship Opportunity Available)

(please see Women in Science page for details)

Toft_RobinModerator: Robin Toft, Author of WE CAN, The Executive Woman’s Guide to Career Advancement; Founder and Chairman, Toft Group Executive Search


Samuels_CamillePanelists: Camille Samuels, MBA, Partner, Venrock


Hastings_PaulPaul Hastings, President and CEO, Nkarta Therapeutics, Inc


Wright_TerryTeresa L. Wright, MD, Staff Physician, Medicine, San Francisco Veterans Administration


KEYNOTE SESSION

(please see Keynote pages for details)

8:00 Organizer’s Remarks

Mana Chandhok, Conference Producer, Cambridge Healthtech Institute

8:05 Chairperson’s Remarks

Joseph Ferrara, CEO, Boston Healthcare

8:10 Keynote Introduction

Fred Lee, MD, MPH, Head of Health Care, Life Sciences Business Development, AWS Data Exchange, AWS

 

8:25 KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: The Value and Application of Informatics in Cancer Care Delivery

Patt_DebraDebra A. Patt, MD, Vice President, Public Policy & Academic Affairs, Medical

Oncologist, Texas Oncology Cancer Center & Editor in Chief, Journal of Clinical Oncology-Clinical Cancer Informatics


8:55 KEYNOTE PANEL DISCUSSION: Pragmatic Use of Informatics in Cancer Care Delivery and Cancer Research: Big Data and AI Take on Cancer

Moderator: Joseph Ferrara, CEO, Boston Healthcare

Panelists: Mark Hulse, Chief Digital Officer, City of Hope

Debra A. Patt, MD, Vice President, Public Policy & Academic Affairs, Medical Oncologist, Texas Oncology Cancer Center & Editor in Chief, Journal of Clinical Oncology-Clinical Cancer Informatics

Kristin Beaumont, PhD, Assistant Professor, Assistant Director of Single Cell Genomics Technology Development Icahn Institute, Dept. of Genetics & Genomic Sciences, Icahn School

Ajay Shah, PhD, Executive Director & Head of IT for Translational Medicine, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Paul A. Rejto, PhD, Vice President, Head of Translational Research, Pfizer Oncology R&D

 

9:40 Refreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing, Speed Networking, Book Signing, and Meetup Group

AI DRUG DISCOVERY USE CASE

10:40 Chairperson’s Remarks

Faisal Khan, PhD, Executive Director, Advanced Analytics and AI, AstraZeneca

10:45 NEW: On the Road to Genetically Validated Targets in Kidney Diseases: Computational Challenges

Tibbitts_ThomasThomas Tibbitts, PhD, Senior Vice President, Computational Discovery, Goldfinch Bio

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is scarring of the kidney that can lead to kidney failure. To discover genetic variants associated with FSGS, we built the Kidney Genome Atlas (KGA 1.0), which contains whole genomes (>30X) on 23000 individuals, including 2000 cases of FSGS and other proteinuric disorders. To efficiently process and analyze this large amount of genomic data we have implemented infrastructure and pipelines on AWS and launched a web portal to facilitate target discovery.

BUSINESS STRATEGY FOR PHARMA PIPELINES

11:15 PANEL DISCUSSION: Partnering for AI Startups and Pharma

Topics to be Discussed:

  • Meeting expectations, what is good for both sides
  • How we can facilitate the transformation of pharma R&D
  • Best practices

Moderator: Annastasiah Mudiwa Mhaka, PhD, Founder and Principal, Mawambo Lifesciences; Co-Founder, Convenor and Former President, Alliance for AI in Healthcare (AAIH)


Panelists:

Joseph Szustakowski, PhD, Vice President of Translational Bioinformatics, Informatics & Predictive Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Jonathan Allen, PhD, Computational Scientist, ATOM Consortium

Christopher Willis, PhD, Lead IT Business Partner, Precision Medicine, BMS

Gini Deshpande, PhD, Founder & CEO, NuMedii, Inc.

12:00 pm PANEL DISCUSSION: Recruiting Data Scientists

Given the massive expansion of Data Science and the consequent need for experts in this area across all industries, there is a massive competition to find and source the talent required. How can we identify, recruit and retain the best data scientists? What are the pitfalls and challenges to avoid and success stories we can learn from?

Khan_FaisalModerator: Faisal Khan, PhD, Executive Director, Advanced Analytics and AI, AstraZeneca


Panelists: Mustaqhusain Kazi, Head of Personalized Healthcare, Pharma Informatics, Genetech

Zahra ‘Nasim’ Eftekhari, Senior Manager, Head of Applied AI and Data Science, City of Hope

José Duca, PhD, Global Head, Computer-Aided Drug Discovery, Novartis

 

 

12:45 Session Break

12:50 Enjoy Lunch on Your Own

1:20 Refreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Last Chance Poster Viewing, Speed Networking, Book Signing, and Meetup Group

FEATURED SESSION: DATA STRATEGIES FOR GENOMICS

2:00 Chairperson’s Remarks

Geraldine A. Van der Auwera, PhD, Director of Outreach and Communications, Data Sciences Platform, Broad Institute

2:05 Fake It ‘til You Make It (Reproducible): Synthetic Data Resources for Genomics

VanderAuwera_GeraldineGeraldine A. Van der Auwera, PhD, Director of Outreach and Communications, Data Sciences Platform, Broad Institute

The computational reproducibility of published biomedical research is limited by data access restrictions, affecting not just researchers who wish to reuse published analysis code, but also tool developers and educators who lack suitable example data for testing and training. We present: 1) a prototype pipeline that wraps established open-source data simulation tools to generate publicly shareable synthetic sequence data at any scale; and 2) a plan to develop community resources.

2:35 Drug Targets with Genomic Support: A Genomics-based Strategic Framework for Improving Target Discovery and Accelerating Drug Development

Justin Wade Davis, PhD, ACOS Research Fellow, Director, Computational Genomics, Genomics Research Center (GRC), AbbVie

Despite strong vetting for disease activity, only 10% of candidate new molecular entities in Ph1 clinical trials are approved. Analyzing historical data, Nelson et al. 2015 concluded pipeline drug targets with human genetic evidence of disease association are twice as likely to lead to approved drugs. We extend this using updated data, test prospectively whether genetic evidence predicts future successes, and introduce statistical models adjusting for target and indication-level properties.

3:05 Close of Conference