Machine learning pioneer, Stanford University Computer Science Professor, and serial entrepreneur Daphne Koller (co-founder of Insitro and Coursera) was interviewed in May of last year by Bloomberg’s Sarah McBride. They delve into the current landscape of drug development, and how having effective models is key to everything from stell cell research to auto-immune therapies.
Having raised over one hundred million dollars from top tier backers in funding and announced a collaboration with Gilead to develop novel therapetics for NASH, or ‘fatty liver disease’, Koller explains how Insitro are rethinking the drug development process. They, she continues, focus on ‘disease in a dish’ models, where past animal models haven’t been very effective, to generate large amounts of data that can be interpreted by ML. The sole purpose of this data generated is to train ML models, the so called “crystal balls” for making R&D decisions.
Koller provides several examples of where new disease insights have lead to novel theraputic success in classically hard-to-target disease areas, across pharma companies.
Finally, Koller fields audience questions on topics as broad as managing data access, germline editing, chronic fatigue syndrome, clinical trial participation, and disparities in trial access.
