AI in Pharma: Clinical Development

John Reynders, PhD MBA, is the Chief Data Sciences Officer at Neumora Therapeutics, a biotech focused upon precision medicines for brain diseases. John is also the founder and CEO of Latent Strategies, LLC, an AI start-up applying data sciences and game theory to business strategy and education. John has over 25 years of leadership experience in life sciences, data-sciences, and technology in organizations spanning early-stage biotechs, multi-national pharmaceuticals, and a top U.S national research laboratory. John’s leadership roles have included VP, Data Sciences, Genomics, and Bioinformatics at Alexion, the founding CIO of Moderna Therapeutics, VP of R&D Information at AstraZeneca R&D, VP Integrative Neuroscience and Biomarkers at J&J, and Director of the Advanced Computing Laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Reynders received a Bachelors, in Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a PhD in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Princeton University, and a Masters in Business Administration from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.

Ryan is the Global Head of Data Science Acceleration at Roche & Genentech where he leads a team of data scientists, data engineers and software developers to develop products and capabilities that enable scientific insight generation for the clinical development portfolio.  Ryan has worked for Roche for 19 years and has held multiple data science leadership roles before his current role including building and leading the personalized healthcare analytics team who generated novel insights from real world data sources including electronic medical records, omics datasets and images.  Ryan also leads the Roche Advanced Analytics Network (RAAN) which is a community of over 1500 AI and machine learning enthusiasts from 40 Roche locations across the globe. Ryan’s background is in Statistics and Computing and he has a passion for advanced analytics, new technology and understanding & fostering team culture and engagement.

Ariel V. Dowling, PhD is a Senior Director and Head of the Sensing and Measurement group within the Data Sciences Institute at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In this role, her group oversees the assessment, validation, and deployment of digital devices and endpoints across the organization. She was previously a Senior Clinical Data Scientist at Biogen Inc where she managed the wearable sensors deployed in clinical development for Parkinson’s Disease. Ariel was also the algorithm team lead at MC10 Inc and worked at BioSensics LLC. Ariel holds an MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and an AB and BE in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College. She currently serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of the Digital Medicine (DiMe) Society.

Amir Emadzadeh is a Director of data science at Gilead sciences, and an adjunct Professor at California Science and Technology University (CSTU). He has more than 10 years of work experience at top Silicon valley companies, including Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Google (Waymo). He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His current focus is on improving clinical operations using data science. He is working on many exciting ML/AI/Modeling problems including extracting information from Pharmaceutical texts using NLP, image classification, clinical development site selection, enrollment forecast, and risk-based monitoring.

Mohsen Hejrati is a computer scientist focused on biotechnology and healthcare. Currently, he is a director of AI & Cloud Engineering at Genentech and co-founder of Galliot (technology consulting). In the past, Mohsen worked as a robotics scientist for self-driving cars at Google[X], and he also founded Maktabkhooneh, the largest Farsi MOOC (served over 18 million students so far, and as of right now, 7 million active students each year), and launched several other startups. Mohsen completed his Ph.D. in Machine Learning and Computer Vision at the University of California, Irvine.

Qinghua Song is the Senior Director and Head of Data & Statistical Science, in Kite Pharma (A Gilead Company). He has nearly 20 years of data and statistical research experiences and comprehensive industry experiences across various stages of drug discovery and development (from research, preclinical, translational science to all phases of clinical development). He has worked in Merck, Genentech and Gilead Science. He is the author/co-authors of more than 20 peer-reviewed, high-profile indexed publications (including Nature, PNAS, Science of Translational Medicine) and more than 50 presentation/posters in scientific and statistical conferences. He received his Ph.D. (2005) and M.S. (2002) in Biostatistics from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Alex Aronov is Executive Director and Head of Data Science at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a function he co-founded in 2017 to address data-centric problems across the entire business through application of advanced analytics and machine learning. 

Previously, Alex led the Discovery Informatics team at Vertex, with responsibility for HTS content and enrichment, the global chemogenomics initiative, as well as the company’s toxicogenomics efforts. He started his career as a computer-aided drug design scientist and was involved in projects in oncology, inflammation, rare diseases, and antivirals. 

Alex serves on the Drug Discovery for the Nervous System committee at the Center for Scientific Review/NIH and is a board member for MIT delta v entrepreneurship bootcamp at the MIT Martin Trust Center. He is an author of over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts and an inventor on over 40 international patent applications. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Washington and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy.

Steve is a technology and business leader with 20+ years of experience in clinical research, health analytics, consulting, and software development. Steve has been with TriNetX since inception leading the development of our technology platform. Prior to TriNetX, Steve built and led engineering teams at Perceptive Informatics and PAREXEL. Before that, Steve was a technology consultant for several Fortune 1000 and startup companies and co-founder of an internet infrastructure company. Steve has a BS in Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Babson College

Luis is a scientist at heart with interest in business and innovation. Before joining Unlearn, Luis worked in clinical development at Biogen focusing on study design and execution of clinical development and as medical writer at Medpace focusing on developing a variety of regulatory documents in close collaboration with regulatory affairs folks. Prior to that, Luis conducted neuroscience research on neurodevelopmental disorders such as Fragile X Syndrome and Down Syndrome at Children’s Hospital in Washington DC and at Boston University. He has co-authored several peer-reviewed papers and served as peer-reviewer for a number of scientific journals. He holds a PhD from University of Malaga (Spain) and an MBA from IE Business School (Spain).

Yongming Qu is currently a Vice President at Eli Lilly and Company. He received his PhD in Statistics from  Iowa State University. He has made significant contributions in all phases of clinical development at Lilly  and has been active in research for using novel analytics and statistical methods in drug development.  He co-authored more than 80 peer reviewed articles in statistical and medical journals. He is a Fellow of  American Statistical Association.

Ganesh is the CEO & founder of Autonomize, Inc, a human-centered AI company. He is an accomplished
business executive, entrepreneur and investor, with deep expertise in data and artificial intelligence (AI)
related businesses. He is passionate about using technology to solve the biggest challenges for
humankind and is a believer in the power of AI to augment human potential. He is an advocate for ethical
use of data and AI, and using technology as a global equalizer to create opportunities for all.
He is also the Founder & Chief Creator of Stories in AI, an edu-tainment venture. He previously co-
founded and scaled Molecula Corp, a data management company, and led growth and commercial
at CognitiveScale, Inc, an Enterprise AI company. Prior to that he spent a 15 year career spanning Dell
Technologies and Intel Corp.
In 2020, he served on the Texas Governor Abbott’s COVID-19 Strike force on Innovation, helping
them unlock data to better decisions on the response and recovery in the State. A frequent keynote
speaker, he is published at Forbes, Business Insider, Fast Company and other publications and was
honored by the Enterprise Management 360 as one of the top 10 tech experts revolutionizing AI.
Ganesh holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Calicut, India, and an
MBA from McCombs School at the University of Texas Austin.

George is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and pulmonologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
He was a national primary investigator and member of the steering committee of the NIH funded COPD Clinical
Research Network and has since participated in multiple local national and international therapeutic development and observational studies. He is one of the PIs and a member of the steering committee for the recently funded
American Lung Association Lung Health Cohort which is an ongoing multicenter observational study seeking to
recruit 4,000 millennials to define markers of impaired respiratory health that predict future lung disease. He has
authored/co-authored over 300 publications, editorials and book chapters on respiratory diseases and the use of
imaging to identify features that enable disease detection, stratification, prognostication and intermediate study
endpoints.
George co-founded Quantitative Imaging Solutions (QIS) in 2015 as a consulting group to provide guidance on the
implementation of imaging and data visualization tools in clinical investigation. QIS has since grown to focus on
the design and build of image and data analytics software used in pre-procedural planning, companion diagnostics
and quality improvement initiatives for population management. George holds a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical
Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a Medical Doctor degree from Georgetown University and a
master’s degree in clinical investigation from Harvard Medical School and is a frequent keynote speaker at
academic and industry sponsored events.

Varun is responsible for early stage innovation partnering for Digital Health, Data
Platforms and Enterprise Technology at Johnson & Johnson Innovation. He
works across J&J and the early stage technology ecosystem to help shape early
incubation, investment and partnerships that shape J&J’s health technology
portfolio. He is also responsible for Technology at the J&J Lung Cancer Initiative
and World Without Disease Accelerator.

Varun has an MBA from Babson F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business and has
gained rich experiences in areas including Medical Device R&D M&A and
economic research. Previous to his current role, Varun guided strategy and data-
driven approaches for J&J’s Medical Devices R&D investment decisions. He also
has helped bootstrap digital health initiatives related to post-orthopedic surgical
care.
Varun supports a Boston startup ecosystem as a mentor and angel investor in
energy tech and health tech. He is also a founding member of
OneAmazingThing.org.