Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way we approach drug discovery — from identifying new targets to optimizing preclinical development. But how does it actually work in practice, and what should life sciences professionals know about it? Join us for a conversation with women leaders at the forefront of AI and biotech innovation. Our panel brings together voices from startups, big pharma, academia, and tech who are applying AI/ML to real-world challenges in drug discovery. They’ll share how AI is being applied today to uncover new targets, speed up preclinical R&D, and shape the future of therapeutics. Whether you’re new to AI or exploring how it fits into your research or career, you'll walk away with a clearer understanding of the opportunities, the limitations, and the future of AI-powered therapeutics.

Note: Each ticket includes light bites and two drink tickets.

Walk-ins will not be accepted. 

Program

5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.  Check in / Networking
6:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.  Panel Discussion
7:30 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.  Q&A 
7:45 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.  Networking
 

Speaker Bios

Stacie Calad-Thomson, PhD, NALA Business Development Lead in Healthcare and Life Sciences at NVIDIA

Stacie, a former pharma and biotech leader, recently joined NVIDIA to further enable AI adoption across healthcare and the life sciences. She also serves as the vice chair of the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AAIH). In her 13+ years at GSK, she led R&D initiatives and co-founded/led the ATOM consortium. More recently, she held leadership roles at AI drug discovery startups Atomwise, where she was a VP of Partnerships, and BioSymetrics, where she was the Chief Strategy Officer. Stacie holds a BS in chemistry from UC Berkeley and a PhD in organic chemistry from UC Irvine.

Kamayani Gupta, CEO of KAMI Think Tank, Moderator

Kamayani is the CEO of KAMI Think Tank, which translates AI research to life science applications. She has been in the life sciences world for 14 years, starting as a neuroscientist and transitioning into consulting and tech. Now she enjoys working with new technologies to reduce redundant work and biases in the drug development pipeline. Kamayani was an early member of IBM Watson for Drug Discovery and the former Head of Life Sciences R&D at Slalom.

Amee Kapadia, Principal at Cantos

Amee is an investor at Cantos, an early-stage venture firm backing relentless founders building in the physical world. She is especially interested in how technology can transform large, underserved industries. Amee also co-founded Decoding Bio, a community at the intersection of AI and biology. She holds an MBA from Stanford and a BS/MS in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins, where she focused on immune engineering.

Rabia Khan, PhD, MBA, Founder and CEO of Serna Bio

Rabia is the founder and CEO of Serna Bio, a YC-backed biotech building the world's first map of the druggable transcriptome. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the UK Dementia Research Institute, an advisor to No Label Ventures, a fund investing in immigrant founders in the UK and EU, and an advisor to The First Thirty VC fund. She has also held advisory roles for Creative Destruction Labs in Canada. Prior to founding Serna Bio, she had experience building scientific teams and delivering commercial deals at the intersection of machine learning, biology, and drug discovery. Rabia was Managing Director, Discovery Sciences at Sensyne Health plc (now Arctoris Data), where she established the scientific strategy, built the machine learning and clinical teams by recruiting and leading a team of 50 machine learning and clinical researchers, delivering on a number of significant pharma partnerships including Bayer, BMS, Roche, and Alexion. She also held senior roles at BenevolentAI and Meta (acquired by Chan Zuckerberg BioHub). At Meta (previously Sciencescape), she was pivotal in the partnership with the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to acquire horizon-scanning technology that used NLP to research the biomedical corpus. At BenevolentAI, she helped shape the discovery strategy for several programs, led the Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Glioblastoma drug discovery programs, and served as the interface between the technical and biological teams. Born and raised in Pakistan, Rabia has a passion for supporting diversity in technology and supporting initiatives focused on improving access to care for schizophrenia and dementia.


Devleena Shivakumar, PhD, Executive Director and Head of Computational Chemistry at Revolution Medicines

Devleena is an Executive Director and Head of Computational Chemistry at Revolution Medicines where she leads computational efforts to advance targeted oncology therapeutics, with a particular focus on pancreatic and lung cancers. With over 20 years of experience in computational chemistry and drug discovery, Dr. Shivakumar brings deep expertise from her previous roles at leading pharmaceutical and technology companies including Merck, Gilead Sciences, and Schrödinger. Dr. Shivakumar did her PhD in computational chemistry from UC Santa Barbara, followed by postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of Chicago. She is passionate about exploring and integrating AI/ML approaches into traditional drug discovery workflows. Her extensive industry experience spans the full spectrum of drug discovery, from early-stage target identification through clinical candidate selection, making her a recognized leader in the field.

Alice Zhang, CEO & Founder of Verge Genomics

Alice is the CEO and Co-founder of Verge Genomics, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop better drugs, faster, for diseases like ALS, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Alice has been recognized for her work as a recipient of Insider’s 30 Under 40 in Healthcare, Fortune 40 Under 40, Fierce Pharma Fiercest Women in Life Sciences, Forbes 30 Under 30 Featured Honoree, MIT Technology Review’s Innovator Under 35, and SF Business Times’ 40 Under 40. She currently sits on the board of directors at the California Life Sciences Association. Prior to Verge, she spent five years in the UCLA-Caltech MD/PhD program and received her BA in molecular biology from Princeton University. In her spare time, Alice is also an angel investor and advisor for tech-enabled bio startups.

Pricing Information

• Members: $35
• Student Members: $20
• Non-members*: $65
• Student Non-members: $40

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Note: A confirmation email will be sent after registration has been completed. 

Maximum Capacity

120

Parking Information

Free parking is available at the venue. See map for details. The best ways to enter the campus are via the garage or the Grande staircase by the parking garage. Both locations will be posted with signs.