The truth about AI in drug discovery: what the experts really think

Dr Raminderpal Singh, Global Head of AI & GenAI Practice at 20/15 Visioneers

Dr. Raminderpal Singh is a highly recognised Key Opinion Leader in the TechBio industry and an Advisory Board Member for Drug Target Review, leveraging over 30 years of global experience to advise life sciences companies on building cost-efficient, IP-generating computational modeling systems to achieve novel biological breakthroughs. He currently leads the HitchhikersAI.org open-source community and is the CEO and co-Founder of Incubate Bio, a TechBio firm that uses in silico modeling to accelerate research and lower wet lab costs. His executive experience includes leadership roles at IBM Research in New York, where he led the go-to-market for IBM Watson Genomics Analytics, and as VP at Eagle Genomics Ltd; he holds a PhD, two books, and twelve issued patents, and was selected by EE Times in 2003 as one of the top 13 most influential people in the semiconductor industry.

Prof Jonathan Stokes, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University

Jon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University. His research focuses on the development and application of leading-edge machine learning techniques for novel drug design tasks, with an emphasis on antibacterial agents. Jon is also the co-founder of Stoked Bio.

Dr Shantanu Singh, Principal Investigator and Senior Group Leader at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Shantanu Singh, Ph.D. is a Senior Group Leader at the Broad Institute, where he co-leads the Carpenter–Singh lab. His lab’s central research theme is using cell imaging to probe biological processes toward finding new therapies for diseases.  
He has previously worked in research groups at Mercedes-Benz R&D, GE Global Research and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he applied computer vision and machine learning techniques to various problems in road safety, cell biology and geospatial imaging.
His lab invented the Cell Painting assay – now widely used in academia and industry to profile large collections of drugs and genetic perturbations, aimed at transforming how disease targets and therapies are identified. He recently co-led the JUMP Cell Painting Consortium, which created the world’s largest public Cell Painting database to help accelerate the search for promising drug candidates, and now co-leads the OASIS Consortium, aimed at creating integrated approach for predicting chemical toxicity using high-dimensional assays including imaging.
Together, these efforts fuel his enthusiasm for harnessing the rapidly evolving fields of high-dimensional biology to address crucial challenges in improving human health

Dr Noor Shaker, Founder and CEO of SpatialX

Dr Noor Shaker is a techbio entrepreneur and AI expert applying machine learning at scale to healthcare. She leads SpatialX, where she is redefining cancer management through data-driven, AI-native approaches. She is a serial entrepreneur with a successful exit in AI-based drug discovery. Shaker is globally recognised as an industry thought leader and frequent speaker at MIT, Fortune, BBC and WIRED. She is also a recipient of honours including MIT Innovator Under 35 and the BBC 100 Women. Earlier in her career, she was an Assistant Professor at Aalborg University, where she published extensively in AI, authored a leading textbook and produced foundational work in procedural content generation and affective computing.

Dr John Androsavich, General Manager of Ginkgo Datapoints

Dr John R. Androsavich is the General Manager of Datapoints at Ginkgo Bioworks, where he leads a “Bio-AI Infrastructure” business focused on generating high-quality, multimodal datasets to train machine learning models for drug discovery and target identification. With over 15 years of experience in genetic medicines, Dr Androsavich has contributed to six clinical candidates and led multiple programs from target discovery through IND-enabling studies. Notably, he originated the target strategy for Farabursen (anti-miR-17), a therapeutic for ADPKD currently entering Phase III trials. Prior to Ginkgo, he served as Global Head of Emerging Science for RNA Medicine at Pfizer and held R&D leadership roles at Translate Bio and Regulus Therapeutics, specialising in mRNA and oligonucleotide platforms. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from the University of Michigan.

 

 

Is the webinar free?
Yes – there is no charge to watch the webinar, either live or on-demand.

When will the webinar take place?
The webinar will take place live on 11 March 14:00 2026 GMT. 

I’m busy. Can I watch it later?
The webinar will become available to watch on-demand shortly after the live webinar takes place.

What are the benefits of attending live?
During the live webinar, you’ll be able to ask the speakers your questions, which will then be answered during the live Q&A session towards the end of the webinar.

How long will the webinar be?
This webinar will last for up to one hour.

What do I need to watch this webinar?
All you need is a computer with an internet connection. Be sure to use headphones if in an office environment.

Do I receive a certificate?
Yes, you will receive a certificate if you attend the webinar live. The certificate will be sent with your on-demand video link.