About the theme/Abstract

The scientific world is moving towards adopting machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL) technologies which are termed as artificial intelligence (AI). The pharmaceutical industry to quickly accessing the progresses in these new technologies and rapidly integrating them in their drug development cycle. The overarching goal of AI in healthcare is to improve human life. So, the innovation is going on with high hopes around better drugs, better diagnostics, medical applications and cure for life threatening diseases. 

Here we will address some key developments in the drug discovery area and see how current state of AI is getting implemented in the pharmaceutical industry. Alongside we will bring to attention some areas where research and innovation are progressing rapidly and globally researchers, government, social organizations are started finding ways to implement these technologies.

Key Questions

1.      Artificial intelligence is immerging as forth-pillar for any innovation. How this new pillar will help in developing new drugs?

2.     AI and ML methods are showing benefit in diagnostics, clinical trials, and sequencing technologies. However, how development of new drugs from ab initio can potentially use AI/ML methods along with scientific experimentation, theory and simulations are the questions we are asking?

3.     There is a need of feedback loop, open sourcing of data, integrating labs, innovators and hospitals. How government and academic-industry partnership will play a role in this? 

Invited Speakers

Session Moderator

Dr. Sudip Roy, Technology Manager, Intel Corporation

Speakers

Prof. Deva Priyakumar U, Associate. Professor, IIIT Hyderabad

Mr. Arnab K Thakur, NITI Aayog, Govt. of India

Dr. Gopalakrishnan Bulusu, TCS Innovation Labs

Biographies

Dr Sudip Roy

Dr Sudip Roy has 18 years of experience in research and innovation. He has worked in the oil and gas, energy and pharmaceutical sectors in R&D for computational chemistry and materials science. However, he has started his career as academician and worked as a scientist at the CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory in Pune where he led of a group of PhD students and worked on several industrial and government-funded projects. Dr Roy is currently Technology Program Manager at Intel India. In his role he engages academia and industry partners for research in emerging technologies. Dr Roy obtained his PhD in theoretical chemical sciences from the University of Saarland and Germany followed by post-doctoral work at Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. He is a Chevening UK fellow and studied management of research, science, and innovation from the University of Oxford, UK.

Prof. Deva Priyakumar U

Prof. Deva Priyakumar is an Associate Professor at IIIT Hyderabad and heads the Center for Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics. His research interests are examination and understanding of diverse chemical and biological systems & processes using quantum mechanical & DFT methods, molecular dynamics simulations and machine learning. Some of the recognitions he has received include Young Scientist Medal from Indian National Science Academy, JSPS invitation fellowship and Innovative Young Biotechnologist award. Prof. Deva has contributed immensely to the field of computational chemistry and biology with his publications and patents.

Mr. Arnab K Thakur

Mr Arnab Thakur leads Frontier Technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and FinTech) initiatives for NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s premier strategy and policy institution, chaired by the Indian Prime Minister. Arnab is a key contributor to the formulation of India’s National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence and is also leading several projects in AI and Blockchain, with special focus on healthcare and supply chain solutions.

Dr Gopalakrishnan Bulusu

Dr. Gopalakrishnan Bulusu (b. 1960 in Madras) studied Chemistry at the Universities of Madras and Hyderabad and obtained his Ph.D in Molecular Biophysics, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. After a couple of post-doctoral stints in the area of structural biology at the Universities of Paris and Cambridge, he joined National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) and taught Medicinal Chemistry for five years. Subsequently he joined Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Hyderabad in 2001 to lead their Molecular Modelling and Drug Design department. He moved to TCS Innovation Labs in 2003 where he leads the Computational Structural Biology group. He also holds adjunct professorships in International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad and in Dr. Reddy’s Institute of Life Scinces, University of Hyderabad Campus. He is a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Current Computer Aided Drug Design (Bentham). Gopalakrishnan’s research interests are in the areas of Bioinformatics, Structural Biology and Drug Design. He has authored more than 50 research papers.