Life Sciences DNA Podcast

The Life Sciences D’n’A podcast is hosted by Dr. Amar Drawid, an industry veteran and AI expert who has worked in data science leadership with top biopharmaceutical companies. He explores the evolving use of AI and data science with innovators working to reshape all aspects of the biopharmaceutical industry from the way new therapeutics are discovered to how they are marketed.

Biopharma Companies Wrestle with an Outsized Demand for AI Talent

The increasing demand for AI talent in the life sciences industry is presenting a challenge for biopharma HR departments. Companies must compete for skilled workers not only against their competitors but also against tech firms that often offer more attractive compensation packages. Steve Swan, CEO of The Swan Group, sat down with Amar Drawid to discuss the current recruitment landscape for AI talent in the life sciences sector, the challenges companies are encountering, and why the mission of drug developers might give them a competitive advantage over tech companies in appealing to certain candidates.

11-14
48:54

Using AI and Synthetic Biology to Go Where Antibody Therapies Can’t

Monoclonal antibodies have been an important addition to the biomedical arsenal, but these therapies have limited ability to target a group of cell surface receptors known as GPCRs. Aikium is developing a new class of therapies known as SeqR proteins that offer an alternative to antibody-based drugs and can bind to intrinsically disordered regions of targeted GPCRs that were previously considered undruggable. Venkatesh Mysore, co-founder and CTO of Aikium, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss how the company is using AI and synthetic biology to discover SeqR protein therapeutics to treat cancer, auto-immune diseases, and neuro-inflammatory disorders.

10-24
57:58

Unlocking Market Access with AI

Rick Lloyd, founder and senior healthcare advisor of Range Health Advisors, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss the intricacies of market access in the pharmaceutical industry, the importance of data analytics and AI in navigating the complexities of pricing and reimbursement, and how real-world evidence may help address the challenges faced by patients and healthcare providers in accessing medications.

10-10
53:38

Ensuring Successful Implementation of AI

Anastasia Christianson, AI and data analytics senior consultant and strategic advisor to life sciences and healthcare companies, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss the integration of AI in the pharmaceutical industry, the importance of organizational models, and why its important for teams across an organization to co-create rather than to work in isolation.

10-03
52:49

Tackling the New Bottleneck of Drug Discovery

Markus Gershater, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Synthace sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss Synthace’s AI-based platform that enables drug developers to design complex experiments, run them, and capture and analyze the data all in an automated way.

09-12
57:20

Swimming in the Deep End of AI

Brendan Frey, founder and chief innovation officer of Deep Genomics, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss how the company is using deep learning to leverage massive RNA biology datasets to drive the development of new therapies.  

08-22
59:08

Using AI to Make Biology Easier to Engineer

Ankit Gupta, the head of AI and Senior Director of Machine Learning Research for Ginkgo Bioworks sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss bioengineering beyond healthcare, how the company is using generative AI and large language models to accelerate bioengineering, it expects this to revolutionize the field.

07-25
53:46

How AI ls Reshaping the Future of Healthcare

Subodha Kumar, professor of statistics, operations, and data science and the founding director of the Center for Business Analytics and Disruptive Technologies at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss how AI will improve operational efficiency in healthcare, enable mass customization for patients, and free providers up to focus on high-value decision making.

06-27
01:00:21

A Venture Studio with Big Pharma Backing Seeks to Fix Drug Development with AI

Mati Gill, CEO of AION Labs, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss how the AI venture studio works with its Big Pharma partners to define the biggest drug development hurdles the industry faces; and how it holds challenges to attract academics, entrepreneurs, and life sciences professionals with the best solutions to build new companies.

06-13
01:03:58

Decoding the Immune System to Optimize Immunotherapies

Noam Solomon, co-founder and CEO of Immunai, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss how the company is using machine learning to take a multi-omics approach to understanding the complexities of the immune system, how it is constructing an atlas of immune cells, and how it is leveraging this to develop the next generation of immunomodulatory drugs.

05-30
01:00:59

Bringing Precision Medicine to Mental Health with AI

Behavioral health is one area of medicine that has lagged in the move towards precision medicine, in part because of a lack of high-quality evidence to drive decision-making. Holmusk is working to change that by using AI and real-world data to transform mental health care. Eze Abosi, chief growth officer for Holmusk, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss the need for standardized ways to measure symptoms for behavioral health conditions. They talk about how Holmusk is unlocking much-needed evidence to guide the successful development of new therapies, how its platform technology works, and why he believes it is charting a path for bringing precision medicines to people with mental health conditions.

05-09
58:21

The Power and Peril of Generative AI in Biopharma and Healthcare

Healthtech and AI Executive Advisor Christian Hein sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss the use of generative AI in the life sciences, its transformational potential, and the current challenges that need to be addressed.

04-25
52:25

Unlocking the Complexity of Disease with Transomics and AI

Samantha Dale Strasser, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Pepper Bio, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss how her company is leveraging AI to get a deeper understanding of disease biology through the use of transomics. We spoke to Strasser about the challenges studying complex diseases, why it’s critical to have the right data to separate signal from noise, and Pepper Bio's dual strategy for balancing partnerships with its own development pipeline.

04-11
47:10

Why Biopharma Companies Should Recognize Data Analytics and AI as Strategic Advantages

Nagaraja Srivatsan, founder of the consulting firm Vidya Seva, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss the application of data analytics and AI to healthcare and the life sciences, how it has evolved, and why it will be a competitive differentiator for companies that successfully capitalize the potential of these technologies.

03-28
51:46

Making Undruggable Targets a Thing of the Past

Jen Nwankwo, CEO of 1910 Genetics, sits down with Amar Drawid to discuss her company’s approach to AI drug discovery, how it is seeking to address big challenges that plague the industry, and why the company is agnostic to drug modality. 

03-14
49:44

Using AI to Revolutionize Precision Oncology

In this episode Tuvik Beker, CEO of Pangea Biomed, sits down with Dr. Amar Drawid to discuss the evolution of precision medicine, the challenges in matching the right drugs to the right patient, and how Pangea uses AI to analyze expression data and gene interaction maps to select the most effective drugs for individual patients.

02-22
42:18

Leveraging Data Analytics to Enhance Biopharma Sales

Data analytics has evolved significantly in the pharmaceutical industry, providing sales professionals with better insights and decision-making capabilities. On this episode, Dr. Amar Drawid sits down with 40-year biopharmaceutical industry veteran Jonathan Blutfield, principal consultant with TriRadial Solutions, to discuss the evolution of data analytics for commercial teams, how sales reps play a vital role in personalizing interactions with healthcare professionals, and how companies can enhance the effectiveness of data analytics tools and integrate them into their sales strategies.

01-31
40:11

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