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The State of AI in Drug Discovery

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Panelists:

Image of Aliza Apple, PhD

Aliza Apple, PhD

Vice President
Catalyze360 AI/ML, Eli Lilly

Panelist

Image of Aliza Apple, PhD

Aliza Apple, PhD

Aliza Apple, PhD, is a vice president of Catalyze360 AI/ML at Eli Lilly, where she leads the strategy, build and launch of Lilly’s external-facing AI/ML efforts for drug discovery. She previously served as the COO and head of Lilly Gateway Labs West Coast, where she supported the local biotech ecosystem through early engagement and providing tailored offerings to meet their needs. Prior to Lilly, Aliza served as a co-founder at Santa Ana Bio, a venture-backed precision biologics company focused on autoimmune disease, and as an advisor to the founders of Firefly Biologics. Prior to biotech, Aliza was a partner in McKinsey’s life sciences practice. During her nine years at McKinsey in New York and San Francisco, she collaborated with leaders from more than 20 biopharma companies to develop their corporate and portfolio strategies, evaluate business development opportunities, and improve their organizational effectiveness.

Aliza completed her PhD in bioengineering at UC Berkeley and UCSF and holds a BS in physics from Georgetown University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell Medical College, supported by the NIH Kirschstein National Research Service Award.
Image of Sam Rodriques, PhD

Sam Rodriques, PhD

Co-Founder, Director, and CEO
Edison Scientific and FutureHouse

Panelist

Image of Sam Rodriques, PhD

Sam Rodriques, PhD

Physicist and bioengineer Sam Rodriques, PhD, is the co-founder, director, and CEO of Edison Scientific and FutureHouse. Sam has invented technologies for spatial and temporal transcriptomics, brain mapping, gene therapy, and nanofabrication, and briefly ran an academic lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London prior to launching FutureHouse in San Francisco in 2023. FutureHouse is a new research lab focused on building an AI Scientist to accelerate research in biology and other complex sciences. In 2025, Sam launched Edison Scientific to commercialize the agents being built at FutureHouse, with the goal of wanting “science to move faster.”

Sam graduated summa cum laude with highest honors in physics from Haverford College, where he worked on new methods for calculating quantum entanglement in multipartite quantum systems. He holds a PhD in physics from MIT, having worked between the MIT Media Lab, the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and the Broad Institute. Among his awards and fellowships are the Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Churchill Scholarship.
Image of Peyton Greenside, PhD

Peyton Greenside, PhD

Co-Founder and CEO
BigHat Biosciences

Panelist

Image of Peyton Greenside, PhD

Peyton Greenside, PhD

Peyton Greenside, PhD, is the co-founder and CEO of BigHat Biosciences, a Bay Area biotechnology company pioneering an ML-driven platform to accelerate the design of next-generation antibodies and other therapeutic proteins.

Peyton holds a BA in applied mathematics from Harvard University, a PhD from Stanford University, and an MPhil in computational biology from the University of Cambridge, U.K.
Image of Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD

Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD

Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO
Xaira Therapeutics

Panelist

Image of Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD

Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD

Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD, is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Xaira Therapeutics. Previously, he held executive positions in the private sector at Genentech, where he was executive vice president for research and chief scientific officer, and in the academic sector, where he served as president of The Rockefeller University and then for seven years at Stanford University, where he remains a professor of biology (on leave). He also served previously on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, and was an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A Rhodes Scholar, Marc has been a leader in understanding mechanisms that direct the wiring of the brain and has helped elucidate mechanisms of neurodegeneration. He is the recipient of numerous scientific awards, including the 2020 Gruber Neuroscience Prize, and has been elected to multiple scientific societies, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and U.S. National Academy of Medicine; he is also an officer of the Order of Canada, one of that country’s highest honors. Marc is the co-founder of two neuroscience biotech companies, Renovis and Denali, and has served on the boards of Agios, Regeneron, Pfizer, Juno, and Denali.

Marc holds a BS degree in physics from McGill University in his native Canada. He earned a BA in philosophy and physiology from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a PhD in physiology from the University of London.

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From billion-dollar funding rounds and waves of IPOs to the first AI-guided molecules entering the clinic, the industry is signaling a clear inflection point: AI is set to fundamentally reshape drug discovery. At the center of this shift are maturing foundation models for molecules and cellular systems that unveil insights into complex biology.

Yet the challenge is no longer prediction alone. Building the infrastructure that connects accelerated computing, generative design, and experimental feedback will be critical for transforming AI into a fully integrated engine for therapeutic innovation.

GEN’s virtual summit, The State of AI in Drug Discovery, returns on November 4 to examine how AI is reshaping R&D timelines and real-world patient translation. From big pharma to AI-natives, this year’s program features the leaders of many of today’s outstanding companies and organizations powering the AI revolution, including Xaira Therapeutics, Edison Scientific, Eli Lilly, Chai Discovery, Lila Sciences, BigHat Biosciences, and more!

Among the program highlights during this 4-hour event are:

  • Building the AI scientist with Sam Rodriques, PhD (Edison Scientific)  
  • A fireside chat with Xaira Therapeutics CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD 
  • Powering AI adoption through strategic enterprise partnerships with Aliza Apple, PhD (Lilly TuneLab), Simon Barnett (Dimension), and Elliot Hershberg, PhD (Amplify Ventures)  
  • The role of agentic workflows in accelerating drug discovery with Le Cong, PhD (Stanford and Phylo) and Andrew Beam, PhD (Lila Sciences) 
  • The new era of programmable therapeutics with Josh Meier (Chai Discovery) and Peyton Greenside, PhD (BigHat Biosciences) 
  • And breakout sessions from our four event sponsors: A-AlphaBio, Benchling, LabVantage, and Revvity Signals.

Don’t miss this exceptional virtual summit, featuring many of the visionaries shaping the future of AI in drug discovery and biotech. Registration, as always, is free.

Guest Speakers Include

The State of AI in Drug Discovery speakers

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