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Accelerating Drug Discovery through digital and AI innovations
Wednesday 15 September 2021
Emerging data technologies and AI are already identifying the drivers behind disease and discovering new approaches to diagnose and treat those diseases. This event by the BIA Science and Innovation Advisory Committee (SIAC) will help SMEs involved in discovering new therapies and diagnostics understand how they can benefit from digital tools and innovations to accelerate R&D, reduce the risks, and transform their businesses.
Case studies will be presented from organisations that have successfully used AI and digital tools in discovery, covering data generation, manipulation, and application. Further workshops are likely to follow on topics identified by attendees, so please do share your thoughts on how we can support you in this area.
If you'd like to join this event, we would be grateful if you would fill out this 5-minute survey to help us understand how best to tailor this event to your needs.
09:15 Sign in and networking
09:30 Welcome
Justin Bryans, LifeArc
09:35 Using cause-and-effect to empower drug discovery
Dan Jamieson, Biorelate
09:50 Data and AI applied to drug repositioning in rare diseases
Richard Smith, Healx
10:05 Data generation, data access and AI tools to accelerate discovery
Rafael Jimenez, Medicines Discovery Catapult
10:20 Data-driven computational approaches for identifying novel therapeutic targets and drug repositioning opportunities
Namshik Han, Milner Therapeutics Institute, University of Cambridge
10:35 Break
10:50 Live Q&A and panel discussion with specific reference to issues participants are facing
Chaired by Karen Wilkinson (KTN) and Liliya Serazetdinova (Earlham Institute)
Richard Goodwin, AstraZeneca
Namshik Han, Milner Institute
Dan Jamieson, Biorelate
Rafael Jimenez, Medicines Discovery Catapult
Adam Sardar, e-Therapeutics
11:50 Summary and closing remarks
Justin Bryans, LifeArc
Speakers
Justin Bryans
Justin Bryans is currently Chief Scientific Officer (Early Discovery) for Charles River Laboratories. He trained as a chemist at the universities of York and Oxford, the latter being as a post-doc under Professor Sir Jack Baldwin. Since then, he has gained over 30 years of experience in drug discovery at a number of biotechnology, pharma, and not-for-profit companies, including Parke-Davis, Pfizer, LifeArc, and now Charles River Laboratories. He has led integrated dug discovery teams developing new potential small molecule and antibody-based treatments for a wide range of conditions, resulting in the discovery of over 30 assets, and is cited as an inventor on over 50 patents. He holds an honorary professorship at Queen Mary University of London and teaches various aspects of drug discovery at QMUL, University College London, and the Wellcome Trust. He also sits on a range of advisory committees and panels and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Richard Goodwin
Richard leads a global team of passionate imaging scientists that deliver expertise across AstraZeneca cutting-edge multidimensional imaging modalities, deriving project insight and impact by connecting safety and efficacy endpoints using advanced tissue histology, molecular imaging, in vivo PET, MRI and much more. This is all connected by an integrated image analysis, digitization and AI. Richard is passionate about collaboration and embedding new technologies and data analysis into the drug discovery process. He has published over 75 publications while at AstraZeneca on the development and deployment of new technology in support of the portfolio, and is honorary Professor at University of Glasgow.
Namshik Han
Prof Namshik Han is the Co-founder and CTO of CardiaTec Biosciences. With over 15 years of experience in machine learning, computational biology, and multi-omics, he also serves as the Head of Computational Research & AI at the Milner Therapeutics Institute, University of Cambridge. In this role, he collaborates with prominent pharmaceutical companies, SMEs, and leading research institutions on various AI-driven drug target, drug, and biomarker discovery projects. His passion lies in bridging the gap between academic research and industry, which led to the establishment of CardiaTec Biosciences in June 2021, alongside co-founders Raphael Peralta and Thelma Zablocki. Cardiatec's mission is to revolutionise cardiovascular therapeutics, addressing the leading global cause of mortality through pioneering the development of the first multi-omics-driven drug target discovery platform specifically designed for cardiovascular disease. The company recognises the potential of multi-omics technology to unravel the complex nature of cardiovascular biology, with a human-centric, AI-enabled approach that enables identification of novel and more precisely defined drug targets, increasing the likelihood of clinical success. Cardiatec is proud to announce their recent recognition in the field at the Cambridge Independent Science & Technology One to Watch Awards 2023.
Dan Jamieson
Daniel founded Biorelate during a PhD in computational biology at the University of Manchester, after supporting the successful identification of drug repurposing opportunities with Pfizer. Daniel’s focus remains on growing Biorelate into a world leading enterprise, helping pioneering companies in their mission to develop life-saving innovations.
Rafael Jimenez
Rafael leads the bioinformatics and cheminformatics teams supporting UK SMEs to solve problems in medicines discovery by interpreting large amounts of data using novel informatics methods. Previously he was the Head of Research Informatics at Alzheimer's Research UK and the Operations Director of the Early Detection of Neurodegenerative Diseases initiative (EDoN) leading data science projects focused on the validation of digital biomarkers for detecting diseases which cause dementia. He has extensive experience leading data management and data integration efforts especially designing and implementing strategies and data services in the areas of genomics, proteomics, molecular interactions and neurobiology. For 5 years he was the CTO and Chief Data Architect of ELIXIR contributing to building a federated data infrastructure participated by more than 200 European service providers working together to better manage, sustain, integrate and harmonise research data resources in life sciences. He also led the development of well-known data resources like IntAct at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), contributed to defining the interoperability strategy of major initiatives like the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and played a key role in establishing community efforts like BioJS, Bioschemas, PSICQUIC and Biocontainers. He is also part of the Technical Advisory Board of the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative (ADDI).
Adam Sardar
Adam’s team supports early-stage discovery projects with work at the interface between bioinformatics and chemoinformatics, using data science to help link small-molecule bioactivity to cellular and, ultimately, phenotypic behaviour. An appreciation for the data, and their myriad artefacts, is essential.
Liliya Seratzetdinova
Liliya has a PhD in Plant Genetics and Biology from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and over 14 years scientific expertise in plant breeding, phytopathology, and biochemistry. She has over 10 years of experience in knowledge transfer and commercialisation with a strong track record in establishing academia-business collaborations and helping consortia to win funding for innovation and R&D. Liliya is leading the Earlham Institute Business Development and Impact Team, delivering the EI’s Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation Strategy, and supporting the EI Faculty with developing links with other academic organisations, private companies and wider stakeholders, and realising the impact of EI research. Prior to the Earlham Institute, Liliya worked at KTN as a Knowledge Transfer Manager within the Agri-Food Team, where she supported large and small companies developing innovative technologies, and worked with government agencies, Innovate UK, research organisations and public funding bodies aiming to add value to the UK economy from exploitation of innovative products and technologies. Prior to KTN, Liliya worked at the University of East Anglia where she managed the delivery of several large multi-partner projects including the £5.3m InCrops Project (ERDF co-funded), £14.6m EnAlgae Project (INTERREG co-funded), BioInno project (Lifelong Learning Programme), and Commercial Consultancy activities.
Richard Smith
Richard has worked for over twenty years in life science companies and academia with a common theme of building databases and tools to help answer scientific questions. His main interests are integrating multiple types of data, taking advantage of natural language processing and expert curation to unlock the value in data. Healx is a drug discovery company combining artificial intelligence, data and deep pharmacology expertise to identify drug treatments for rare diseases. Richard joined Healx six years ago as the first employee and has been part of the company's growth to over a hundred people. Richard is now the data content lead, his team works to understand data needs across the company, integrate scientific data from a wide range of sources and make them available for use by AI methods and internal tools.
Karen Wilkinson
Karen's professional background combines eight years of collaboration and research management, intellectual property development and Knowledge Exchange activities for medicine, health and care at the University of Sheffield, with 15 years’ business experience in the pharmaceutical industry, managing international clinical trials. Karen has experience in clinical trials, medical devices, digital health. Research development and management. R&D funding mechanisms, application review and decision making. Development of research partnerships; network development and events management. Intellectual property management; IP licensing and spin outs.
We are excited to bring you this BIA regional focused networking event in virtual format.
You will be able to join us online to network and, similar to an in-person event, move from virtual table to table to mingle with other attendees. The platform we will be using also includes useful features which will allow you to message directly with other attendees and share LinkedIn details to connect. There is also a general chat for all attendees.
During the presentations/discussion you will be able to submit and vote on audience questions and we will try our best to cover everything in the time allocated.
What are the technical requirements to attend the virtual event?
- There is no software installation or download required.
- Please attend using a laptop or desktop computer with audio and video capabilities (webcam and microphone).
- You will need to use one of the supported browsers to have the best user experience:
Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. - Please do a system check in advance of the event, to ensure you will be able to join without issue.
If your company has firewalls or browsing restrictions in place, please test your connection and liaise with your IT team in advance to ensure you are able to fully participate in the event.
BIA members: Free
Non-members: £30 +VAT
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In case of any issues registering for the event, please contact us at [email protected]
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