Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming scientific research and healthcare. This webinar explores tangible, real-world use cases where AI is making a difference today. Join expert panelists from leading academic institutions, innovative biotech companies, and investors as they discuss the practical applications of AI in life sciences.

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Speaker Bios

Anna Benefiel, Strategic Innovation Advisor for Strangeworks

Anna is a Strategic Innovation Advisor for Strangeworks, an award-winning and rapidly growing quantum computing services company founded in 2017. Strangeworks seeks to make the transformative potential of quantum computing accessible to all. Anna has worked to advance healthcare innovation for 20 years, via roles in early-phase pharmaceutical manufacturing, life science IP licensing at UT Southwestern, and new healthcare product and service design at Vizient. An MIT alumna, Anna holds a master’s degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins. She lives in the Washington, DC area in a home filled with three wonderful kids, probably too many pets, and never enough books.

Kamayani Gupta, Co-Founder of KAMI Think Tank, Moderator

Kamayani is the co-founder of KAMI Think Tank, an AI research organization in the healthcare life sciences. She has been in the life sciences area for the past 14 years and uses data-centric approaches to optimize complex business processes. Over the past decade, she has enjoyed working with new technologies to reduce redundant workflows and biases in the drug discovery to commercialization pipeline. She was one of the first members of Watson for Drug Discovery and the former Head of HCLS R&D at Slalom.

Maria-Alkistis Iliopoulou, Innovation Strategist for InterSystems

Maria-Alkistis (Alki) is the Innovation Strategist for InterSystems, with expertise in blending behavioral science with emerging technologies. With a diverse background spanning public, private, and social sectors, she has held leadership roles at Harvard, Fortune 500, and startup companies. Alki holds graduate degrees from Harvard and Thunderbird. She is the host of the popular Behavioral Science Series, and as an ex-professional basketball player, she finds joy in making things that matter, fun.

Stephanie Oestreich, Managing Director of the Myeloma Investment Fund, Moderator

Stephanie is Managing Director of the Myeloma Investment Fund (MIF) and is the chair of the McCloy Alumni Association. She is also on the faculty of MIT, a member of SpringBoard Ventures, an advisor at grIP Venture Studio, to Biognosys (a Bruker company), Invitris, the CART company CelineTx, and to the drug development and investment company OrangeGrove Bio. Previously, she was Chief Business Officer at Galecto, Vice President at cell therapy company Mnemo Therapeutics, a Venture Partner at RA Capital, and Executive Vice President at Evotec, where she built its North American investment arm and started an incubator with Samsara BioCapital. She also worked as an international business leader at F. Roche Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and for Novartis in business development and commercial. Stephanie conducted the research for her PhD in biochemistry in the lab of a Nobel Prize winner at Harvard Medical School and obtained an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Roy Perlis, MD, MSc, Editor in Chief of JAMA+ AI

Roy is responsible for AI content across the JAMA Network and is the Director of the Center for Quantitative Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. He serves as Vice Chair for Research and Ronald I. Dozoretz, MD Endowed Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Brigham, and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Perlis has authored more than 400 articles reporting original research in peer-reviewed journals ranging from Nature Genetics and Nature Neuroscience to JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on the development of novel treatments and biomarkers for brain diseases. The Perlis lab pioneered the application of emerging artificial intelligence methods to improve patient care, using electronic health records for understanding illness course and treatment responses. Applying these kinds of methods to biobanks allowed his group and collaborators to identify the first risk genes for major depression in 2016 and for treatment-resistant depression in 2023. Dr. Perlis was awarded the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance's Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award in 2010 and the DBSA's Senior Investigator Award in 2025; he is proud to serve as a scientific advisor to the DBSA. In his spare time, he enjoys tinkering with pinball machines and trying to grow things.

Banishree Saha, Associate Director and Global Biomarker and Assay Analytical Lead at Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Banishree is a biomedical scientist with 17+ years of experience translating complex immunology into practical biomarker strategies for drug development. She is an Associate Director and Global Biomarker and Assay Analytical Lead at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, guiding biomarker and assay strategy across the Gastroenterology (GI) and Inflammation portfolio. Trained in India and the United States, her work in GI and hepatology has advanced the understanding of disease pathways and biomarkers of progression and immune response. She believes in the power of community, volunteering, and advancing Asian leadership. She lives in Lexington, MA, with her husband and young son.

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