Talking Precision Medicine

AI can propose a molecule or suggest the next experiment. But someone still has to run the experiment, check the result, and decide what to do with it. In this episode of Talking Precision Medicine, Rafael Rosengarten talks with Stacie Calad-Thomson, Global BD Lead for BioPharma Labs & Manufacturing at NVIDIA about connecting AI to the physical lab. They discuss why consistent experimental data matters, how agents and robotics could work together across a lab, and what scientists will do as more of that work becomes automated.

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Episode 62 links:

• NVIDIA AI for Healthcare and Life Sciences
• Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Strategic Collaboration With NVIDIA Leveraging AI to Advance Scientific Instrumentation and Accelerate Laboratory Performance
• NVIDIA BioNeMo Platform Adopted by Life Sciences Leaders to Accelerate AI-Driven Drug Discovery
• The World’s Most Powerful AI Factory for Pharmaceutical Discovery and Development
• Benchling and HighRes: connecting experiment design to lab automation
• AAIH (The Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare)

Are we measuring progress in AI-driven drug discovery the right way? Rafael Rosengarten explores this question with Andrii Buvailo, co-founder of BioPharmaTrend and one of the industry’s most perceptive analysts of AI in biotech and pharma.

They trace the evolution of AI-driven drug discovery, examine why counting AI-discovered drugs gives an incomplete picture of progress, and explore where AI can create value today. Andrii also considers why the technology has become so polarizing, what remains distinctly human in an AI-enabled world, and how patient data and more representative biological systems could reshape drug development.

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Episode 61 links:

• http://andriibuvailo.com
• BioPharmaTrend
• Molecules & Empires Substack
• Where Tech Meets Bio Substack
• The Biotech Edge LinkedIn newsletter
• Drug Discovery Has No Magic Wands by Daphne Koller

Artificial intelligence may be transforming drug discovery, but AI is only as powerful as the data it learns from. Behind many of today's scientific breakthroughs sits an invisible layer of expertly curated, harmonized knowledge that allows researchers to ask better questions and trust the answers. In this episode, Rafael speaks with Tim Walberg, President of CAS, about why scientific data curation remains essential in the age of large language models, how CAS has evolved from Chemical Abstracts Service into a global scientific intelligence platform, and why the future of AI in science depends as much on data quality as on model sophistication.

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Episode 60 links:

• CAS
• American Chemical Society (ACS)
• CAS SciFinder
• CAS BioFinder

Mental health remains one of medicine's greatest unmet needs. In this episode, Jacob Hooker explains how Sensorium Therapeutics is searching for new psychiatric medicines by combining traditional plant knowledge with cutting-edge drug development. Jacob joins Rafael Rosengarten to discuss how centuries of ethnobotanical knowledge, modern AI, and medicinal chemistry are helping uncover new treatments for anxiety, epilepsy, and cognitive disorders. Along the way, they explore the science behind psychoactive plants, the growing global burden of mental health conditions, and what the future of psychiatric medicine could look like if researchers can move beyond symptom management toward lasting brain health.

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Episode 59 links:

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Sensorium Therapeutics

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Aether in Mind Substack

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Book recommendations

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Richard Evans Schultes: Plants of the Gods

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Mark J. Plotkin: Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice

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Wade Davis: One River

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The Plants of the Gods podcast

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Updated trends in the global prevalence and burden of mental disorders, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023

•

Americans for Ibogaine

In episode 58, Rafael sits down with James Zanewicz, CEO of Connect, to discuss the art and science of building innovation ecosystems. From Connect's origins as the world's first accelerator to the future of AI-powered healthcare, James shares lessons from a career spanning science, law, technology transfer, academic medicine, and ecosystem development. Together, they explore what makes San Diego a global innovation hub, why collaboration matters more than competition, and how organizations can create the connective tissue that helps ideas become impactful.

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Episode 58 links:

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Connect

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Connect Current Podcast

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Alliance for AI in Healthcare

•

BIO International Convention

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BLPN BIO Week Summit event

In this episode, Rafael Rosengarten sits down with Lisa Gurry, Chief Business Officer at GeneDx, to discuss the transformative role of genomic testing in rare disease diagnosis, therapeutic discovery, and precision medicine. Lisa shares GeneDx's mission to shorten the diagnostic odyssey for patients and families, explains how genomic data is accelerating drug development, and reflects on her deeply personal experience raising a daughter with a rare disease. Together, they explore how advances in sequencing, AI, and data integration are creating new possibilities for patients, clinicians, and biopharma alike.

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Episode 57 links:

• GeneDx
• GeneDx Infinity
• Truveta

In this episode, Rafael Rosengarten sits down with Dr. Kamal Jethwani, VP of Digital Ventures at Moffitt Cancer Center, CEO of AccelerOnc Studio, and consulting CEO of Decimal Health. With over two decades in digital health, Kamal shares how Moffitt is transforming cutting-edge oncology expertise into scalable AI-native companies, why operational implementation matters more than most founders realize, and how digital health adoption succeeds or fails inside real clinical workflows. From “concierge MVPs” to explainable AI, the conversation covers the hard-won lessons of building digital health programs at the ground level and why oncology innovation may be entering a completely new era.

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Episode 56 links:

• Moffitt Cancer Center
• AccelerOnc Studio
• Decimal Health

Precision oncology promises more data, more insight, and better decisions, yet in practice it often brings more complexity. In a new episode Rafael Rosengarten is joined by Dr. Shakti Ramkissoon, VP of Oncology at Labcorp, to unpack the realities on the ground. From access gaps, reimbursement challenges and fragmented workflows to the promise of longitudinal data and AI-enabled clarity, Dr. Ramkissoon shares how Labcorp is working to simplify complexity while preserving what matters most: human connection in care.

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Episode 55 links:

• Pulse of the Oncologist 2026 report
• Shakti Ramkissoon on LinkedIn

In this episode, Rafael Rosengarten speaks with Dr. Sean Khozin, CEO of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer. Sean shares how pre-competitive collaboration across industry, academia, and regulators is helping address some of the biggest challenges in oncology. The conversation explores the role of data sharing initiatives like Project Data Sphere, the promise of AI in clinical trials and discovery, and Sean’s unique journey from music to science.

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Episode 54 links:

• CEO Roundtable on Cancer
• Project Data Sphere
• Sean Khozin webpage
• PhyusionBio substack
• Sean Khozin on LinkedIn

In this episode, I’m joined by Colette Delawalla, founder and CEO of Stand Up For Science. What began as frustration over a federal “banned words” list evolved into a national mobilization effort to defend scientific freedom and evidence-based policymaking. We talk about the organization’s origin story, its National Day of Action on March 7, 2026, the communication gap in science on the political left, the campaign to impeach RFK Jr., and what rebuilding American science might require in the years ahead. Come on in and have a listen.

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Episode 53 links:

• Stand Up For Science homepage
• National Day of Action map (March 7, 2026)
• Impeach RFK Jr. & the Quack-o-gram campaign
• Articles of impeachment against RFK Jr.
• Stand Up For Science Subreddit
• Book recommendation: Nothing is True and Everything is Possible

In this episode, I’m joined by my longtime friend Ian Simon, Head of Biotechnology at Aspis Intelligence. Ian’s path runs from grad school vaccine research at Yale to senior roles at the White House, HHS, NIH, the State Department, and the Office of Long Covid. We talk about de-risking young biotech companies, what Covid taught us about science and public health, and how new technologies like AI might change how we do science altogether.

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Episode 52 links:

• Ian Simon on LinkedIn
• Aspis Intelligence

In this episode Rafael sits down with Michelle Chen, President and CEO of Form Bio, a techbio company using AI to advance genome engineering and the development of genetic medicines. Michelle shares her zigzag journey from scientist to executive, how her team is tackling the biggest bottlenecks in gene therapy, and why AI has become essential in designing safer, more effective treatments.

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Episode 51 links:

• Michelle Chen on LinkedIn
• Form Bio

Today I’m joined by Mike Rossi, Vice President of Translational Science and Multi-modal Real-World Evidence Solutions at ConcertAI. Mike has built a career at the intersection of genomics, data science, and oncology, helping to bridge the gap between research and real-world clinical practice. We talk about what real-world data really means, how it becomes actionable evidence, and what it takes to turn the messy reality of patient care into insight that changes lives.

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Episode 50 links:

• Mike Rossi on LinkedIn
• ConcertAI

Joining us on this episode is Mida Pezeshkian, an old colleague and friend. Mida’s career has spanned from the depths of stem cell science as a student to her current focus on product management in healthcare. We talk about what it really takes to launch products in this space, and how she helps customers bring truly transformational innovations to market.

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Episode 49 links:

• Mida Pezeshkian on LinkedIn
• STEMA_cg
• The Lab

Today on the show, I’m joined by Michael Montalto, vice president of precision medicine at Amgen. Amgen is widely recognized as one of the most successful pharmaceutical companies in translating research and development into approved therapies. A key part of that success comes from their focus on precision medicine, and Mike brings a unique perspective from the forefront of that work.

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Episode 48 links:

• Amgen
• Michael Montalto on LinkedIn
• Genialis presents a poster at ISMB/ECCB 2025⁠

Joining us on this episode is Tom Neyarapally, co-founder and CEO of Archetype Therapeutics, an exciting new AI-driven company in the drug discovery space. Archetype is an AI-native biotech pioneering the use of generative chemogenomics and patient clinicogenomic data to virtually screen billions of potential drug candidates each day.

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Episode 47 links:

• Archetype Therapeutics
• Tom Neyarapally on LinkedIn
• “Exploring a “Patient-First” Path in Drug Discovery”, a LinkedIn article by Tom Neyarapally, Paul McDonagh, and Rafael Rosengarten

Stéphane Budel, founding partner at DeciBio, joins the Talking Precision Medicine Podcast to explore the future of the field. He unpacks how liquid biopsy, multi-omics, and AI are opening new doors for personalized care, why the diagnostics business model is holding innovation back, and what it will take to make complex tech usable for clinicians and patients alike.

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Episode 46 links:

• DeciBio

• Stephane Budel on LinkedIn

DeciBio’s White Paper on AI in Drug Development (with contributions from Rafael Rosengarten)

Today’s guests are Anna Berkenblit, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and Sudheer Doss, Chief Business Officer at PanCAN. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is the leading organization dedicated to advancing progress against pancreatic cancer. It empowers patients and caregivers, drives early detection strategies, and revolutionizes the development of advanced and personalized treatments.

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Episode 45 links:

• Anna Berkenblit on LinkedIn
• Sudheer Doss on LinkedIn
• PanCAN
• For access to data through PanCAN’s SPARK platform, please visit: http://pancan.org/spark
• For more information, contact PanCAN Patient Services with questions about any type of pancreatic cancer – we are here to help.

Today’s guest is Najat Khan, Chief R&D Officer and Chief Commercial Officer at Recursion Pharmaceuticals.

Recursion is widely recognized as one of the most visible—and so far, most successful—companies to emerge from the tech-bio movement. Many consider it the current industry leader.

It has become an iconic name in the field of artificial intelligence for drug discovery.

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Episode 44 links:

• Najat Khan on LinkedIn
• Recursion

What a pleasure to welcome today’s guest, Ryan Fukushima, chief operating officer of TempusAI. Not only has Ryan helped build Tempus brick by brick from the earliest days, he is also CEO of Pathos AI, a biotech company using real world data and AI to develop true precision medicines. I don’t know how he juggles it all, but unless you’ve been hiding out these last few years, Tempus has become a household name in our industry, completing a highly successful IPO last year. But no need to take my word for it, come on in and have a listen!

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Episode 43 links:

Ryan Fukushima on LinkedIn⁠

⁠Tempus AI⁠

⁠Pathos⁠

⁠Tempus announces multi-year collaboration with Genialis