“Leading Trends in Life Science AI Start-ups”

Emerging new AI solutions are pushing the boundaries of health technology to solve pressing health problems with next-level innovation.

Masashi Kiyomine, Founder & Managing Partner at Kicker Ventures

Superpower: Investment & Logic

Masashi is the Founder & Managing Partner at Kicker Ventures and a veteran healthcare venture capitalist. With more than 18 years of early stage investments in Digital Health, Medical Devices, Biopharma and Healthcare Services covering the US, EU, Israel and Asia, Masashi brings a strategic vision to Kicker grounded in breadth of experience and knowledge of this field.

Prior to founding Kicker Ventures, Masashi spent 13 years at Mitsui Global Investment and served as the Head of Global Life Sciences Venture Investment. Masashi has an appointment as a Specially Appointed Professor (Visitor) at Tohoku University and advises several healthcare and innovation programs, including Innohub by METI and AMDAP by Tokyo. Masashi is a columnist at Nikkei Beyond Health and holds a dual BA in Engineering and Asian Studies from Dartmouth College.

An avid beer enthusiast, Masashi is a co-owner of Wursthall, a California take on the German Beerhall in San Mateo.

Masashi has served as board member and/or observer of more than a dozen healthcare companies, and currently serves as a board observer for Swing Therapeutics and CareX.ai.

“Harnessing AI to Transform Drug Development“

BioPhy is leading the revolution in AI drug development with two core AI solutions, predictive (identify) BioLogicAI and proprietary generative (accelerate) BioPhyRxI, to accelerate the drug development process and ensure critical therapies reach patients faster.

BioPhy offers two core AI solutions, predictive (identify) and generative (accelerate). BioLogicAI is our predictive intelligence solution that rapidly analyzes clinical trial data to accurately forecast study outcomes, optimizing development and portfolio decisions across the most promising therapeutics. BioPhyRx is our proprietary generative AI that provides on-demand scientific and clinical guidance, allowing experts to enhance productivity across regulatory, quality, operational, and BD workflows - accelerating core drug development functions today, or can be fine tuned for any organization.

Uniquely deployable at any stage from pre-clinical through regulatory approval and beyond. BioPhy leverages robust data, pending patents, and world-renowned AI expertise to drive unprecedented speed and value from early-stage biotech to large pharmaceutical companies.

David Latshaw, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, BioPhy

Dave is a globally recognized expert in artificial intelligence (AI) who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of BioPhy. Dave’s deep expertise at the intersection of AI and Biotechnology led to the creation, development and launch of the innovative BioPhy technology platform. Along with leading the company, Dave actively directs all scientific research and technology development, as well as overseeing day-to-day operations.

Prior to co-founding BioPhy, Dave was a Sr. Scientist at Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) and a lead in the Advanced Technologies Center of Excellence, where he designed and implemented global scale AI technology across multiple areas of the drug development lifecycle. Notably, Dave’s work has been recognized and profiled by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company. Dave has also been selected as a member of the Frontiers of Engineering, a part of the National Academy of Engineering, and a member of PA Governor’s Life Sciences Task Force. Dave and BioPhy have featured in Forbes, Axios, Venture Beat, Fierce Healthcare, Endpoints, Politico and other publications.

Dave holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University. He went on to complete his graduate education at North Carolina State University, where he earned both a Master of Science (MS) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with his PhD research focusing on computational biophysics in neuroscience. He also completed a graduate minor in Biotechnology. Additionally, Latshaw earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a focus on Finance and Operations from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

“Surgical Vision EUREKA: Enhancing surgical precision through cutting-edge AI visualization technology“

Surgical Vision Eureka (Eureka SV) is an AI system that visualizes how surgical experts see anatomy and approach surgery. It is equipped with “Precision Mapping” technology, which analyzes complex anatomical structures and highlights micro-structures that varies from patient individual.

Eureka SV will continue to evolve by deep learning from a vast number of surgical videos and it will gradually expand its repertoire of analyzable surgeries, such as operations in the thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic regions.

James Yuji Grosvenor, Vice President of Global Operations, Anaut Inc.

James leads global business operations at Anaut, a Tokyo-based surgical AI startup. Previously a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and engagement lead of Innovation Strategy at Salesforce. He has over 10 years of experience working across a variety of markets, including the United States, Japan, South Africa, Korea, Taiwan, and India. He has also worked in business development for startups and served in the U.S. Peace Corps in South Africa.

• Experienced in: Cross-Border Business Strategy & Operations, Digital Strategy & Transformation, Innovation & Growth Strategy, Customer Experience Strategy, Human-Centered Design & Design Thinking, Program Management, Digital Marketing, Market Entry Strategy, M&A Due Diligence, Organizational Change Management, Cost Optimization
• Industry experience: Tech & Startups, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services, Consumer Goods, Retail, Telecom, Automotive, Manufacturing, Urban & Environmental Planning, Government

"Enabling deep learning for medical applications – diabetic retinopathy screening with fully autonomous AI models and future datasets"

As techniques with AI models advance, it is imperative that they undergo rigorous assessment and evaluation before they are applied to human health. This talk will focus on the advances in the diabetic retinopathy space with fully autonomous AI models and how future datasets are being constructed to spur innovation.

Aaron Y. Lee, MD MSCI, Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Washington

Dr. Lee is a professor and vitreoretinal surgeon at University of Washington, Department of Ophthalmology, and recipient of the C. Dan and Irene Hunter Endowed Professorship.

He completed his undergraduate at Harvard University and his medical training at Washington University in St Louis. He chairs the American Academy of Ophthalmology Information Technology Steering Committee. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for both Translational Vision Science and Technology and Ophthalmology Science, and on the Editorial Board for the American Journal of Ophthalmology and Nature Scientific Reports.

He has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is known as a leader in the field of artificial intelligence and ophthalmology. Aaron Lee's research is focused on the translation of novel computation techniques in machine learning to uncover new disease associations and mechanisms from routine clinical data including electronic health records and imaging.

"Proprietary generative AI technology, VincoAI, co-pilot AI and medical image analysis"

Introduce proprietary generative AI technology, VincoAI, and provide an overview of our AI workflow. Showcase examples, including two ongoing AI projects:

1. Co-pilot AI for life sciences and medical doctors, developed using NASA's COVID-19 data.
2. Medical image AI analysis, leveraging NIH data.

Alexander G. Lai, Chief Technology Officer, Vincogen

Alexander is CTO at Vincogen and lead developer for VincoAI, a groundbreaking generative AI model. VincoAI is a Large Language Model (LLM) trained NOT on language but on amino acids binding pairs. VincoAI is a generate AI platform that produces novel peptide sequences that can bind onto the active or binding sites of targeted AMR proteins.

With a Master's degree in Biotech from Harvard, Alexander honed his skills in designing and implementing advanced machine learning models, including LSTM and Transformer architectures, and bridging them to biotechnology. His technical proficiency extends to Python, SciPy, NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, tensorflow, and pytorch - tools he has deftly used for constructing large-scale data processing pipelines. He is experienced with AWS to rapidly scale any AI systems. Among his significant accomplishments is the development of a custom AI, which played a pivotal role in generating a portfolio of 108 in-silico peptides for target disease proteins.

Alexander presented VincoAI at the World AMR Congress in Philadelphia in September 2023 and Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, June 2023.  He was recognized as a 2023 honoree for PHL Inno’s “25 Under 25” list, August 2023.

"Ethical Algorithm Design – principled solutions based on the emerging and exciting science of socially aware algorithms that embed social values like privacy and fairness"

Over the course of a generation, algorithms have gone from mathematical abstractions to powerful mediators of daily life. At the same time, complex algorithms are increasingly violating the basic rights of individual citizens. Allegedly anonymized datasets routinely leak our most sensitive personal information.

Understanding and improving the science behind the algorithms that run our lives is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing issues of this century.

The Ethical Algorithm offers a new approach: a set of principled solutions based on the emerging and exciting science of socially aware algorithm design – to better embed human principles into machine code without halting the advance of data-driven scientific exploration.

Michael Kearns, Professor and National Center Chair, Department of Computer and Information Science at University of Pennsylvania

Michael is Professor and National Center Chair at the University of Pennsylvania, the Founding Director of Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences, Founder and former Director of Penn’s Program in Networked & Social Systems Engineering (NETS), the founding director of Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences, and holds secondary appointments in Penn’s Wharton School. He is a leading researcher in computational learning theory and algorithmic game theory. He previously led the Advisory and Research function in Morgan Stanley’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence team.

His research interests include topics in machine learning, artificial intelligence, algorithmic game theory and microeconomics, computational social science, and quantitative finance and algorithmic trading. He examines problems in these areas using methods and models from theoretical computer science and related disciplines. He often participates in empirical and experimental projects, including applications of machine learning to problems in algorithmic trading and quantitative finance, and human-subject experiments on strategic and economic interaction in social networks.

Michael and fellow Penn professor, Aaron Roth wrote a general audience book, The Ethical Algorithim, about the science of socially aware algorithms that embed social values like privacy and fairness. They have given a number of recorded talks about the book, including one on CSPAN's BookTV. They wrote a related policy brief for the Brookings Institution.

“The Intersection of Law and Technology”

Explore how aspects of the law intersect with technology. In a rapidly evolving area, as the world becomes increasingly focused on AI, innovations in technology are reshaping the legal landscape. From AI to data privacy to cyber security and IP rights, the legal system is facing new challenges and opportunities and at unprecedented pace. Understanding the complex relationship between legal principles and technological advancements is the first step to staying informed, adapting to the future, and facing legal challenges.

Karen Odash, Associate, Artificial Intelligence Team

  Karen Odash is an Associate in the firm’s Philadelphia office. Karen assists clients with a range of labor and employment matters, including sexual discrimination and other Title VII claims, litigation and counseling on restrictive covenants and trade secrets, and day-to-day employment advice. Prior to graduating law school, Karen served as a paralegal focusing on employment and litigation. She spent more than ten years as the director of legal programs for a Fortune 250 financial services company with an emphasis in employment law including restrictive covenant and recruiting. She also provided advice to corporate business partners regarding policies and procedures and legal updates.