Fariba Ahmadizar

Biography
Fariba Ahmadizar is an epidemiologist working at the forefront of diabetes precision medicine and cardiometabolic research. Her work integrates multi-omics data, including genomics and metabolomics, with clinical, environmental, and pharmacological information to identify biomarkers that improve risk prediction, prevention, and treatment strategies in diabetes and related disorders. She leads multiple international research initiatives investigating the role of glucose dysregulation and glycemic variability in cognitive decline and dementia, advancing understanding of metabolic drivers of brain health. Her research applies advanced epidemiological and data-driven methods to real-world and multi-omics datasets to generate clinically actionable insights for precision medicine. She serves as principal investigator in several national and international consortia and is actively involved in academic teaching, scientific coordination, and mentorship. Her work bridges epidemiology, molecular data science, and clinical practice to advance personalized approaches to diabetes care, cardiometabolic disease prevention, and cognitive health.

David Baker

Biography
David Baker is a Nobel laureate, professor of biochemistry, HHMI investigator, and director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington. His lab develops software for protein design and uses it to create molecules that address challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. Recent work includes the development of machine learning methods for generating functional proteins. David is also an adjunct professor of genome sciences, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and physics at the University of Washington. He has published more than 650 scientific papers, been awarded over 100 patents, and co-founded 21 biotechnology companies. More than 100 of his trainees have gone on to independent faculty positions. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for computational protein design.” He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Inventors. David was also included on TIME’s inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential People in health. David received his PhD in biochemistry with Randy Schekman at the University of California, Berkeley, and conducted postdoctoral research in biophysics with David Agard at UCSF.

Daphne Koller

Biography
Daphne Koller is CEO and Founder of insitro, a causal AI therapeutics company focused on discovering and advancing novel, transformative medicines. Daphne was the Rajeev Motwani Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where she served on the faculty for 18 years. She was also co-CEO and President of Coursera and Chief Computing Officer of Calico Labs. She authored over 300 refereed publications (h-index >150). Daphne was recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2012 and 100 most influential people in AI in 2024. She received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004, the ACM Prize in Computing in 2008, the ACM AAAI Allen Newell Award in 2019, and the AnitaB.org Technical Leadership Abie Award in 2022. Daphne was inducted into the NAS in 2023, into the NAE in 2011 and elected a fellow of the AAAI in 2004, the AAAS in 2014, and the ISCB in 2017.

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Dimitri Yatsenko

Biography
Dimitri Yatsenko is the scientific lead behind Data Joint, an open-source framework widely adopted across neuroscience for building reproducible, scalable, and fully automated data pipelines. Originally developed during his work at Baylor College of Medicine, Data Joint has become foundational infrastructure for labs generating large-scale electrophysiology, imaging, behavioral, and multimodal datasets. Dimitris work focuses on transforming fragmented research workflows into unified, auditable systems that integrate data acquisition, analysis, and computational modeling. Over more than a decade, he has championed data-centric research practices that accelerate discovery, improve scientific rigor, and enable collaborative, multi-institution neuroscience projects. His contributions have helped establish best practices for managing complex experimental data and have empowered researchers to connect raw measurements to higher-order insight with speed, transparency, and reproducibility.

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Talk
In AI Drug Discovery, Rigor Compounds
Drug discovery advances by accumulation—each result rigorous enough for the next to build on. As AI agents join computational biology and discovery work, rigor first, not speed, is what compounds: results that carry their origin, reproduce reliably, and stay defensible. The data foundation determines whether discovery compounds or collapses.

Evgeny Kiner

Biography
Evgeny Kiner is the founder of NeoSplice Therapeutics, an AI-driven platform company unlocking disease-specific therapeutic targets that are inaccessible to traditional genomics. He was trained in RNA biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Phillip Sharp, and later in systems immunology at Harvard University with Diane Mathis and Christophe Benoist, where he helped bring single-cell RNA sequencing into large-scale immune profiling efforts as part of the Immgen consortium. He is the author of a highly cited Nature Immunology study that reshaped understanding of CD4 T-cell states. Prior to Neo Splice, he was a founding scientist at Immunai, where he helped build AI-driven platforms for biological discovery. Evgeny is passionate about expanding the druggable target space and accelerating the path from data to medicines using AI.

Jack Dent

Biography
Jack Dent is the co-founder of Chai Discovery, which is building the "computer-aided design suite" for molecules. Chai Discovery has raised $230M from leading investors including OpenAI, Thrive Capital, Anthropic, and General Catalyst. In 2025, Chai was the first company to demonstrate the ability to design antibodies on the computer with double digit success rates. Before starting Chai, Jack led engineering and product teams at Stripe. He graduated from Harvard in 2018 with a joint BA/MS in Computer Science, where his main research areas included systems and machine learning.

Daphne Koller

Biography
Daphne Koller is CEO and Founder of insitro, a machine learning driven drug discovery and development company. Daphne is also cofounder of Engageli, was the Rajeev Motwani Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where she served on the faculty for 18 years, co-CEO and President of Coursera, and Chief Computing Officer of Calico Labs. She is the author of over 300 refereed publications, with an hindex of over 145. Daphne was named one of TIME Magazines 100 most influential people in 2012. She received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2004), ACM Prize in Computing (2008), ACM AAAI Allen Newell Award (2019), and AnitaB.org Technical Leadership Abie Award Winner (2022). Daphne was inducted into the National Academy of Science (2023), the National Academy of Engineering (2011) and elected a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (2004), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2014), and the International Society of Computational Biology (2017).

Richard Hargreaves

Biography
Richard Hargreaves is a neuroscientist with a BSc and Ph.D. from Chelsea/Kings College, London University UK, currently serving as Senior VP Head of Neuroscience, Immunology, Integrative Sciences and Cardiovascular research at Bristol Myers Squibb. His career also includes leadership roles at Celgene, Biogen, and Merck where his teams contributed to the development and registration of multiple CNS drugs and PET imaging agents. Richard has also played key roles in building external partnerships, collaborations and strategic acquisitions in neuroscience. His work has been recognized through various scientific and leadership awards and an honorary professorship at the University of Oxford UK.

Arnout Van Hyfte

Biography
Arnout Van Hyfte joined Bio Strand in 2019 as a member of the founding team and has played an important role in its evolution into what is now Mind Walk. He has contributed to shaping product direction and establishing the product development foundation behind Mind Walk’s LensAI platform, powered by HYFT® technology. Arnout leads the product development organization, working across teams to translate complex capabilities into cohesive, user-ready products. His work supports the ongoing evolution of LensAI, roadmap execution, and the delivery of innovative solutions that integrate smoothly into scientific workflows—advancing Mind Walk’s long-term product vision.

Vitalay Fomin

Biography
Vitalay Fomin is the CEO and co-founder of Numenos with the purpose to develop novel AI approaches in clinical drug development . Vitalay is a data scientist and molecular biologist combining data science and experimental biology to reveal and target novel mechanisms contributing to disease progression and drug response. At Roche/Genentech, he developed innovative workflows to identify genomic and biomarker features affecting immunotherapy response, particularly in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). His research leveraged large clinico-genomic databases (Flatiron Health), vast internal clinical trial data and cutting-edge machine learning approaches to understand checkpoint inhibitor resistance in cancer. Our goal os to create novel AI infrastructure to convert vast amounts of uninterpretable human data into real world applications using novel implementations of AI by generating a large clinic-genomic model (LCGM), that can semantically harmonize biological data to come up with for foundational biological concepts, the equivalent of the physics laws for biology.