BioRad.io

Episode 23: From Bench to Machine — Making Research Data AI-Ready

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0500

In this episode, discover how artificial intelligence (AI) can help you transform biopharma research and tackle the critical challenge of managing complex biological data. The discussion dives into strategies for designing software and databases that enable innovative science while keeping you compliant with regulatory demands. We examine how data management practices are evolving, why data standardization matters for your work, and how to balance fast-moving experimental designs with the need for AI-ready data. The episode highlights collaborative efforts to help you build a strong foundation for AI-driven insights in drug discovery.

Guest: Alekhya Akkunuri, Senior Bioinformatics Software Engineer, Metagenomi

Episode 22: Accelerating Innovation — The New Era of AI-Driven Drug Discovery

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0500

In this episode, learn how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming pharmaceutical research and development. The discussion highlights how advancements in target identification, data integration, and workflow optimization can accelerate your research. We share insights on overcoming challenges in drug discovery, the role of generative AI, and what the future of agentic AI means for you. The conversation underscores the importance of collaboration and explores how AI can help revolutionize drug discovery.

Guest: Chris Waller, PhD, Vice President and Chief Scientist, Epam Systems

Episode 21: The Future Lab — Innovations in Digital Transformation

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Episode 21: The Future Lab — Innovations in Digital Transformation

Discover how the future biopharma lab will enable seamless collaborations and data-driven insights, catalyzing research advancements. Equipped to integrate data streams, automate repetitive tasks, and accelerate experimentation, the future lab promises transformative impact. Technologies — from AI-driven analytics to high-throughput screening platforms — will revolutionize how scientists explore drug candidates and unravel disease mechanisms faster and more efficiently. Listen to this episode to learn how the future lab will facilitate digital innovations and transform biopharma R&D.

Guest: Asha D'Souza, PhD, CEO, Ashtrix, Inc.

Episode 20: Unified Insights — Bridging the R&D Data Divide

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Data silos and challenges around data fragmentation and interoperability hinder holistic insights and innovation in research and development. Specifically, these challenges include retrieving, parsing, and cleansing data from various sources and formats, ensuring data security and privacy. However, at the center of data interoperability is the role of the patient. The patient brings data together and provides potential for transformative insights and accelerated innovation through a unified approach to data management. With a comprehensive strategy that integrates genomic, phenotypic, clinical, and device data, enhancing drug discovery and fostering innovation can be expedited, effectively bridging the existing data divide.

Guest: Ardy Arianpour, CEO & Cofounder, SEQSTER

Episode 19: Reimagining Cancer Drug Development

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 23:00:02 -0500

Episode 19: Reimagining Cancer Drug Development

In this episode, we discuss the way cancer drug development can be reimagined using AI and machine learning. Traditional drug development faces a high failure rate, highlighting the importance of understanding a drug's mechanism of action to improve success rates. AI and computational models that analyze data from various modalities, such as genomics and clinical information, can identify novel targets and enhance precision medicine. Advancements in data availability, especially in the clinic, and a deeper biological understanding are fundamental to revolutionize future drug discovery.

Guest: David Li, Co-Founder and CEO, Meliora Therapeutics, Inc.

Episode 18: The Future of Microbial Drug Discovery

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Microbial drug discovery holds immense promise in revolutionizing healthcare. Although fungi and other microbes have long been a source of natural compounds with therapeutic potential, advancements in technology have made the search for new candidates easier than ever. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, researchers can rapidly explore the rich genetic diversity of fungi and predict therapeutic potential. This convergence of science and technology will undoubtedly drive the future of microbial drug discovery, leading to the development of groundbreaking treatments for various diseases.

Guest: Karen Wong, PhD, Computational Biologist, Hexagon Bio

Episode 17: Biomarker Identification for Early Disease Detection

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 09 May 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Episode 17: Biomarker Identification for Early Disease Detection

When diseases such as cancers are detected in their early stages, before they have spread, the overall survival rate is significantly higher than when diagnosed in later stages. Developing biomarker tests that detect early-stage tumors is complex and difficult, but quite rewarding, leading to improved characterization, treatment, and management of cancer. Determining which types of data (genomic, proteomic, etc.) are most informative is a major challenge requiring extensive research and discovery. In this episode, we discuss the need for early detection tools, methods for developing them, and some of the informatics challenges, including algorithm and model development, handling large volumes of data from multiple sources, and data integration.

Guest: Peter Meintjes, PhD, CEO, Pacific Edge, Ltd.

Episode 16: Digital Precision Medicine

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Episode 16: Digital Precision Medicine

Precision medicine is a multifaceted approach to designing and delivering individualized patient treatments. Using multi-omic, environmental, lifestyle, and other data, researchers aim to more accurately develop treatment and prevention strategies tailored to each unique patient. The promise of precision medicine is huge, but it also creates new challenges around data capture, storage, computation, and creation of algorithms for prediction and analysis. In this episode, we discuss the evolution of precision medicine and some ways these challenges are and can be addressed, including blockchain, remote patient monitoring, and strategic data integration.

Guest: Kumar Bala, Former Head of Digitalomics Strategy, Oracle

Episode 15: Optimizing Drug Target Identification through Artificial Intelligence

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Traditionally, drug targets are found by scouring scientific publications for insights into molecular pathways or known causative genetic variants, linked to disease. The failure rate of drug candidates in the clinic, even in relatively late-stage clinical trials, is quite high and is extremely costly. Fundamentally, finding better targets will lead to development of better medicines. In this episode, we discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) and the increasing availability of complex biological datasets can be leveraged to identify molecular targets. Machine learning models trained on large amounts of data allow researchers to differentiate between states or conditions more specifically to predict disease-relevant targets.

Guest: Avantika Lal, PhD, Senior Genomic Data Scientist, insitro

Episode 14: The Rise of Digital Therapeutics

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 08:48:00 -0400

Digital therapeutics are software-driven, evidence-based products used to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disease or disorder. Digital therapeutics enable patients to be more aware of and play a more active role in managing their health and can improve access for patients for whom visiting a clinician is challenging. This significantly improves health outcomes and reduces healthcare demands as compared to more traditional interventions alone. Digital therapeutics are expected to grow dramatically over the next few years, but significant challenges around regulation and adoption remain. Listen in as we discuss the current state of the industry and where this technology may take us in the future.

Guest: Emily Lewis, MS, CCRP, Global Digital Transformation Lead, Neurology, UCB

Episode 13: The Realities of Personalized Medicine

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 06:12:00 -0400

Personalized medicine is critical to the future of our healthcare and wellness. Using vast sets of clinical, genomic, proteomic, and other patient data, potentially lifechanging treatments can be discovered and delivered to patients. However, implementation of personalized medicine faces unique challenges, partly because it is focused on individuals, each with their own unique genetics and history, whereas clinical trials tend to average across populations. What changes are needed for personalized medicine to truly become a reality? In this episode, we discuss some of the biggest obstacles and what is needed to catalyze advances in personalized medicine.

Guest: Rong Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Episode 12: The Future of Data Management

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 06:45:00 -0500

High-throughput technologies have triggered a surge in scientific data generation and consumption, but managing these volumes of data is challenging. Listen as we discuss data fabric, an emerging solution that connects data sources in one environment.

Episode 11: The Synthetic Biology Revolution

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 15:07:48 -0400

Synthetic biology is the design, testing, and construction of new, standardized biological parts and devices, and programming them to do something productive. Significant medical breakthroughs are already happening as a result of advances in synthetic biology. From antiviral treatment and immune cell engineering to biomonitoring, the applications of synthetic biology are endless, creating new opportunities for innovative informatics. In this episode, we discuss revolutionary applications of synthetic biology in biopharma.

Guest: Mark Charbonneau, PhD, Director and Head of Quantitative Biology, Synlogic

Episode 10: Next-Generation Therapeutic Antibody Discovery

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 12:28:39 -0400

Over the past three decades, since the first monoclonal antibody was approved for clinical use in the U.S., antibody techniques and technologies have advanced radically. However, the supporting informatics have evolved at a much slower pace. There are significant informatic challenges throughout the research process, from concept to regulatory submission. How can a holistic informatics strategy support gaining clearer insights into scientific operations, make smarter decisions about their campaigns, and ultimately bring therapeutics to the clinic faster?

Guest: Colby Souders, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Abveris

Episode 9: The Future of Open Access Research Data

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 08:29:00 -0500

Data liquidity, the ability of data to flow easily and securely, provides tremendous value for biopharma researchers. Open access is paving the way for increased collaboration and discovery. However, additional initiatives are needed to further promote the management and sharing of scientific data and ensure that information is quickly available to researchers. This episode highlights the needs, solutions, and challenges of ensuring interoperability of research data throughout the data lifecycle.

Episode 8: Data Sharing and Collaboration

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 08:29:00 -0500

Increasingly, pharma is looking at partnerships and collaborations to increase the velocity of drug discovery and development. Common data sharing platforms are not built to meet lab-specific requirements. In addition to discussing the necessity of simple and secure collaboration, listeners will learn about the dangers of not using proper tools.

Episode 7: Data Standardization

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 10:28:00 -0400

As biopharma research and development continues to transform digitally, the industry as a whole struggles with guidance on how data and relevant metadata are captured, managed, and shared. Typically experimental data are siloed,

Episode 6: Genomic Data Disparities

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 10:28:30 -0400

Sequencing is used to identify novel drug targets and genetically stratifying clinical trial patients, improving the power of precision medicine. However, the global disparity of genomic technologies is increasing. How will this affect drug development, particularly for non-European ethnicities? Why is it important to have a global context for targeted therapies?

Episode 5: Lab of the Future (LoTF)

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 09:28:00 -0500

Life science companies are looking to modernize their research environments and build the Lab of the Future. From early discovery to preclinical research, how can technology help automate the lab and accelerate discoveries?

Episode 4: Active Learning in Drug Discovery

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 09:28:00 -0500

What are the theories, algorithmic principles, and limitations of active learning? What are some current applications of active learning within BioPharma drug screening and optimization? How can active learning accelerate multi-dimensional drug discove...

Episode 3: Next-Generation Data Integration, Visualization, and Exploration

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 09:28:00 -0500

What is the vision of interactive data exploration beyond enriching visualizations and facilitating the integration of data? Within the context of research, what are the challenges and opportunities in building next-generation visual analytics?

Episode 2: The Realities of AI/ML

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 09:28:00 -0500

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are big topics getting lots of attention within BioPharma. What is the role of AI/ML in genomics? How can we separate the hype of AI/ML from reality? Listen in to find out this and more.

Episode 1: Moving to the Cloud

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:28:00 -0400