| Page 86 | Kisaco Research

Key Takeaways: 

  • Learn how our technology applies predictive ML models to combinatorial synthesis libraries (CSLs) to screen ~500 M compounds per second per GPU, enabling exhaustive exploration of chemical space to identify compounds optimized for multiple design parameters
  • Learn how real-time, exhaustive enumeration of chemical space fosters a genuine creative process for chemical discovery by returning results of flexible and iterative queries within seconds, in the form of full chemical structures
  • Explore how this technology can be used with extrapolative ML models to increase chemical diversity of high-quality binders, and how this high-efficiency screening framework can be extended to other predictive models for rapid evaluation of hyper-scalable CSLs

Author:

Steve Worland

CEO
Atomwise

Steve Worland, Ph.D. serves as the CEO of Atomwise and has over 30 years of experience in corporate leadership and pharmaceutical R&D. He was previously President, CEO, and Board Member of eFFECTOR Therapeutics, which he co-founded in 2012. Prior to that, he was CEO of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, where he led the company through its acquisition by Roche in 2011. Before becoming CEO, he served as Chief Scientific Officer and President of Pharmaceuticals at Anadys.

 

Earlier in his career, he held senior positions at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Warner-Lambert, and Pfizer, where his scientific research contributed to the discovery and development of Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir), Inlyta (axitinib), zotatifin, tomivosertib, and other clinical-stage candidates. At Agouron, he was Vice President and Director of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, remaining at the company through its acquisitions.

 

Dr. Worland earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Biology at Harvard University as an NIH fellow. He earned a B.S. with Highest Honors in Biological Chemistry from the University of Michigan. He serves on the Board of Directors at Blacksmith Medicines and has previously served on the boards of Tracon Pharmaceuticals, Forge Therapeutics, and GenMark Diagnostics.

... read more

Steve Worland

CEO
Atomwise

Steve Worland, Ph.D. serves as the CEO of Atomwise and has over 30 years of experience in corporate leadership and pharmaceutical R&D. He was previously President, CEO, and Board Member of eFFECTOR Therapeutics, which he co-founded in 2012. Prior to that, he was CEO of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, where he led the company through its acquisition by Roche in 2011. Before becoming CEO, he served as Chief Scientific Officer and President of Pharmaceuticals at Anadys.

 

Earlier in his career, he held senior positions at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Warner-Lambert, and Pfizer, where his scientific research contributed to the discovery and development of Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir), Inlyta (axitinib), zotatifin, tomivosertib, and other clinical-stage candidates. At Agouron, he was Vice President and Director of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, remaining at the company through its acquisitions.

 

Dr. Worland earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Biology at Harvard University as an NIH fellow. He earned a B.S. with Highest Honors in Biological Chemistry from the University of Michigan. He serves on the Board of Directors at Blacksmith Medicines and has previously served on the boards of Tracon Pharmaceuticals, Forge Therapeutics, and GenMark Diagnostics.

This session will give an understanding of what it takes to realize the vision of fully integrated and autonomous drug discovery, both from an AI and data generation perspective.

Author:

Melissa Landon

Head, Commercial & Business Development, AI & Automation
MilliporeSigma
... read more

Melissa Landon

Head, Commercial & Business Development, AI & Automation
MilliporeSigma

AI is redefining how clinical trials are designed and executed. A major obstacle to complete transformation is tapping into the data that offers novel, well-governed insights. Drawing on the industry’s largest trial operations dataset: schedules of assessment, amendment drivers, trial benchmarks, and site performance trends, Advarra offers a unique, ethically grounded data foundation. Building on this vantage point, the session will share a vision for how AI can transform the drug development lifecycle from end to end, along with real-world applications already shaping the future of trials.

Author:

Mike Eckrote

Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions & Technology
Advarra

Mike Eckrote is Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions & Technology at Advarra, where he leads efforts to advance innovative approaches to clinical research and development. He brings more than a decade of experience in real-world data, technology solutions, and clinical trial optimization, with leadership roles spanning HealthVerity, Medable, and Medidata Solutions. Throughout his career, Mike has specialized in applying AI/ML, real-world evidence, and data-driven strategies to improve trial design, site selection, and patient outcomes.

... read more

Mike Eckrote

Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions & Technology
Advarra

Mike Eckrote is Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions & Technology at Advarra, where he leads efforts to advance innovative approaches to clinical research and development. He brings more than a decade of experience in real-world data, technology solutions, and clinical trial optimization, with leadership roles spanning HealthVerity, Medable, and Medidata Solutions. Throughout his career, Mike has specialized in applying AI/ML, real-world evidence, and data-driven strategies to improve trial design, site selection, and patient outcomes.

The promise of AI in pharma is hindered by fragmented R&D data silos and the infrastructure gap between cloud-native research and on-premise manufacturing. This session presents an architectural blueprint for a unified, hybrid data platform designed to bridge these divides, creating a seamless R&D-to-manufacturing continuum.

We will explore how to first connect R&D data into a powerful knowledge graph. Next, we detail how to compute on this unified data by securely deploying NVIDIA's advanced AI models as microservices within a sovereign cloud environment. Finally, we demonstrate how a true hybrid architecture can bridge the cloud-native lab to the factory floor, unifying CMC and manufacturing data for end-to-end optimization.

Author:

Rameez Chatni

Global Director, AI Solutions, Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences
Cloudera
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Rameez Chatni

Global Director, AI Solutions, Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences
Cloudera

At AIDDD 25, Dirk Van Hyfte and Holly Soutter will share insights on reprogramming the entire drug discovery process, presenting the HYFT® breakthrough that enables biology to "compute itself"—making complex biological connections explainable, accessible, and actionable for the first time. This session will explore: 

  • Reprogramming Discovery: How AI-native platforms are reshaping how scientists interact with biological data and design new therapies. 
  • The HYFT® Breakthrough: Unveiling a novel computational approach that decodes universal biosphere patterns, unlocking unprecedented discovery potential. 
  • The Frontier of Explainable AI in Biology: Transcending black-box models to deliver clarity, transparency, and trust in AI-powered biological research.

Author:

Dirk Van Hyfte MD, PhD

Chief Technology Officer,
MindWalk

Dirk Van Hyfte stands at the forefront of innovation where artificial intelligence and biology intersect. As Chief Technology Officer of MindWalk, a Bio-Native AI company, Dirk leads transformative research powered by patented HYFT® technology and the LensAI™ platform—cutting-edge tools that unify biological data for accelerated drug discovery and development.

 

With a degree in Medicine and specialization as a Psychiatrist from the prestigious University of Leuven in Belgium and a PhD in medical artificial intelligence from Nijmegen University, Dirk combines deep clinical knowledge with pioneering expertise in computational science. Dirk’s expertise extends beyond the realms of technology and business. His entrepreneurial vision is reflected in the creation of iKnow, a natural language processing platform acquired by InterSystems, a global data technology leader, in 2010.

 

Dirk’s leadership has positioned MindWalk as a driving force in explainable and scalable biological AI, moving the field toward an era where biology itself computes, learns, and reveals new therapeutic frontiers.

 

 

At AIDDD 25, Dirk Van Hyfte and Holly Soutter will share insights on reprogramming the entire drug discovery process, presenting the HYFT® breakthrough that enables biology to "compute itself"—making complex biological connections explainable, accessible, and actionable for the first time. This session will explore:

  • Reprogramming Discovery: How AI-native platforms are reshaping how scientists interact with biological data and design new therapies.
  • The HYFT® Breakthrough: Unveiling a novel computational approach that decodes universal biosphere patterns, unlocking unprecedented discovery potential.
  • The Frontier of Explainable AI in Biology: Transcending black-box models to deliver clarity, transparency, and trust in AI-powered biological research.
... read more

Dirk Van Hyfte MD, PhD

Chief Technology Officer,
MindWalk

Dirk Van Hyfte stands at the forefront of innovation where artificial intelligence and biology intersect. As Chief Technology Officer of MindWalk, a Bio-Native AI company, Dirk leads transformative research powered by patented HYFT® technology and the LensAI™ platform—cutting-edge tools that unify biological data for accelerated drug discovery and development.

 

With a degree in Medicine and specialization as a Psychiatrist from the prestigious University of Leuven in Belgium and a PhD in medical artificial intelligence from Nijmegen University, Dirk combines deep clinical knowledge with pioneering expertise in computational science. Dirk’s expertise extends beyond the realms of technology and business. His entrepreneurial vision is reflected in the creation of iKnow, a natural language processing platform acquired by InterSystems, a global data technology leader, in 2010.

 

Dirk’s leadership has positioned MindWalk as a driving force in explainable and scalable biological AI, moving the field toward an era where biology itself computes, learns, and reveals new therapeutic frontiers.

 

 

At AIDDD 25, Dirk Van Hyfte and Holly Soutter will share insights on reprogramming the entire drug discovery process, presenting the HYFT® breakthrough that enables biology to "compute itself"—making complex biological connections explainable, accessible, and actionable for the first time. This session will explore:

  • Reprogramming Discovery: How AI-native platforms are reshaping how scientists interact with biological data and design new therapies.
  • The HYFT® Breakthrough: Unveiling a novel computational approach that decodes universal biosphere patterns, unlocking unprecedented discovery potential.
  • The Frontier of Explainable AI in Biology: Transcending black-box models to deliver clarity, transparency, and trust in AI-powered biological research.

Author:

Holly Soutter

Director, Lead Discovery and Profiling
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Former Director, Lead Discovery and Profiling, Center for the Development of Therapeutics, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

 Dr. Holly Soutter is a visionary leader and driving force in the convergence of biotech, pharma, and artificial intelligence, leveraging over two decades of drug discovery expertise.  Holly's innovation lies in her ability to strategically unify structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics with cutting-edge high-throughput screening to generate the high-quality data essential for fueling next-generation machine learning models.

She possesses a clear-eyed vision: that the future of drug discovery is AI-powered, but that success hinges on a "biology-first," hypothesis-driven approach to ML integration. This deep commitment ensures that the technology serves the science, accelerating the path to novel therapies.

 While at the Broad Institute, Holly built a legacy of collaboration, working directly with machine learning experts to seamlessly integrate AI tools into hit finding workflows. These pioneering, integrated systems have democratized small molecule discovery, making it accessible to academic researchers worldwide.  As the founding co-chair of the Machine Learning in Drug Discovery Symposium, she acts as a crucial nexus, fostering vital connections between experimentalists and ML scientists and attracting luminaries who are defining the next era of medicine.

 

At AIDDD 25, Dirk Van Hyfte and Holly Soutter will share insights on reprogramming the entire drug discovery process, presenting the HYFT® breakthrough that enables biology to "compute itself"—making complex biological connections explainable, accessible, and actionable for the first time. This session will explore: 

  • Reprogramming Discovery: How AI-native platforms are reshaping how scientists interact with biological data and design new therapies. 
  • The HYFT® Breakthrough: Unveiling a novel computational approach that decodes universal biosphere patterns, unlocking unprecedented discovery potential. 
  • The Frontier of Explainable AI in Biology: Transcending black-box models to deliver clarity, transparency, and trust in AI-powered biological research.
... read more

Holly Soutter

Director, Lead Discovery and Profiling
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Former Director, Lead Discovery and Profiling, Center for the Development of Therapeutics, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

 Dr. Holly Soutter is a visionary leader and driving force in the convergence of biotech, pharma, and artificial intelligence, leveraging over two decades of drug discovery expertise.  Holly's innovation lies in her ability to strategically unify structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics with cutting-edge high-throughput screening to generate the high-quality data essential for fueling next-generation machine learning models.

She possesses a clear-eyed vision: that the future of drug discovery is AI-powered, but that success hinges on a "biology-first," hypothesis-driven approach to ML integration. This deep commitment ensures that the technology serves the science, accelerating the path to novel therapies.

 While at the Broad Institute, Holly built a legacy of collaboration, working directly with machine learning experts to seamlessly integrate AI tools into hit finding workflows. These pioneering, integrated systems have democratized small molecule discovery, making it accessible to academic researchers worldwide.  As the founding co-chair of the Machine Learning in Drug Discovery Symposium, she acts as a crucial nexus, fostering vital connections between experimentalists and ML scientists and attracting luminaries who are defining the next era of medicine.

 

At AIDDD 25, Dirk Van Hyfte and Holly Soutter will share insights on reprogramming the entire drug discovery process, presenting the HYFT® breakthrough that enables biology to "compute itself"—making complex biological connections explainable, accessible, and actionable for the first time. This session will explore: 

  • Reprogramming Discovery: How AI-native platforms are reshaping how scientists interact with biological data and design new therapies. 
  • The HYFT® Breakthrough: Unveiling a novel computational approach that decodes universal biosphere patterns, unlocking unprecedented discovery potential. 
  • The Frontier of Explainable AI in Biology: Transcending black-box models to deliver clarity, transparency, and trust in AI-powered biological research.
  • Learn about novel methods to generate large, bespoke high-resolution datasets in a matter of weeks instead of months.
  • Explore how high-throughput, high-resolution interaction kinetics can fine tune AI models resulting in more efficient workflows and improved therapeutic characteristics
  • Discover how kinetic datasets generated under multiple pH conditions can support the development of pH dependent binders for cancer therapies using AI.

Author:

Bharath Takulapalli, PhD

Founder & CEO
SPOC Biosciences

Bharath is inventor of multiple foundational life science technologies at the interface of nanotechnology, systems biology and ML/AI, to extract 100x more information from systems biology than currently possible. He conceived Sensor-integrated Proteome On Chip (SPOC) technology to bridge a big gap in proteomics space, to democratize high-throughput functional protein screening. SPOC is the first and only technology that enables production of 1000s of full-length folded proteins on 1.5 sq-cm biosensor chips, to simultaneously screen for qualitative, quantitative, and kinetic information on protein bindings/interactions in a single assay, at once. Bharath is also the inventor of FENT solid-state nanopore technology for 1000x faster DNA sequencing at 1/10th cost, being developed by iNanoBio Inc. He raised $18M private capital and secured about $8M from DARPA, NIH. Bharath’s vision is to achieve 90% disease preemption, which is to detect and intervene in pre-disease phases, to cure before full disease onset.

... read more

Bharath Takulapalli, PhD

Founder & CEO
SPOC Biosciences

Bharath is inventor of multiple foundational life science technologies at the interface of nanotechnology, systems biology and ML/AI, to extract 100x more information from systems biology than currently possible. He conceived Sensor-integrated Proteome On Chip (SPOC) technology to bridge a big gap in proteomics space, to democratize high-throughput functional protein screening. SPOC is the first and only technology that enables production of 1000s of full-length folded proteins on 1.5 sq-cm biosensor chips, to simultaneously screen for qualitative, quantitative, and kinetic information on protein bindings/interactions in a single assay, at once. Bharath is also the inventor of FENT solid-state nanopore technology for 1000x faster DNA sequencing at 1/10th cost, being developed by iNanoBio Inc. He raised $18M private capital and secured about $8M from DARPA, NIH. Bharath’s vision is to achieve 90% disease preemption, which is to detect and intervene in pre-disease phases, to cure before full disease onset.