Speaker Profile
Ph.D., Director, Eli Lilly &
Biography
Melody Shahsavarian, Ph.D., is Senior Director of Data Strategy and Digital Transformation in Biotherapeutics Discovery Research at Eli Lilly and Company. She leads efforts to make experimental data, automation, and artificial intelligence more accessible and useful across biologics discovery. Her career has combined wet-lab science with technology-platform development, including phage-display antibody libraries, droplet microfluidics, next-generation sequencing, immune-repertoire profiling, and data systems designed to support machine learning. Before joining Lilly, she spent nearly nine years at Sanofi Large Molecules Research and predecessor organizations, progressing through scientific leadership roles focused on biologics and digital innovation. Dr. Shahsavarian earned a B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, an M.S. in Biotechnology and Biomedicine from Université Joseph Fourier, and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology in France. At Lilly, she is helping build integrated data and AI capabilities intended to improve scientific decision-making, accelerate design-make-test-analyze cycles, and support an increasingly AI-enabled biologics discovery process.
Talk
AI and Data Sciences Showcase:
Zymo Research
Session Abstract – PMWC 2027 Silicon Valley
Track Chair:
Alex Morgan, Khosla Ventures & Gad Getz, Broad Institute
PMWC Award Ceremony
• David Baker, University of Washington (Nobel Laureate, Luminary)
Featured Speakers
• David Baker, University of Washington
• Jack Dent, Chai Discovery
• Dimitri Yatsenko, DataJoint
• Evgeny Kiner, Neosplice Therapeutics
• Alex Morgan, Khosla Ventures
• Gad Getz, Broad Institute
Causal Targets, Not Just Better Molecules
Using AI and human biology to improve target selection before chemistry begins.
Data Is the Moat
What proprietary, longitudinal, and perturbational data really confer advantage.
From Prediction to Patient
Patient stratification, smarter trials, and the handoff from model to clinic.
Designed Biology Meets Drug Development
AI-designed proteins, developability, and what survives contact with reality.
The Target Discovery Bottleneck
Why splicing and other underused biology may expand what is druggable.
Davos of Precision Medicine
PMWC 2027 Program
January 27–29, 2027 · Santa Clara Convention Center
Swipe speakers · Tap a card for sessions →
In a few words.
PMWC is indeed The Davos of Biotech
PMWC Hall of Impact
Previous Speakers Include
Nobel laureates, technology founders, regulators, CEOs and scientific pioneers who have taken the PMWC stage.
