📢 Highlights
Next week is Synbio Beta - don’t forget to check out our event on the 8th!
The Newsletter team is looking for fresh contributors - sign up here!
AI dominated the news with Moderna and Xaira’s big bets on gen AI in pharma
May Journal Club topic announced - Proteomics! RSVP here
Not yet a member of our super awesome slack community of >6000? Join HERE 🤗
🗓️ Upcoming BiB Events
See our handy dandy Lu.ma event calendar HERE, please RSVP so folks can plan accordingly!
SF Data Driven Biotech Networking Event - May 2nd 140 Geary St. 10th floor
Thank you for organizing Ilya Captain + Kyle Duckworth
Philadelphia Bits in Bio Happy Hour - May 8, 3675 Market St Suite 100
Thank you for organizing Zeal Jinwala + AJ Adejare
Bay Area Bits in Bio + 50Y Happy Hour @SynBioBeta - May 8, TBD - San Jose
Thank you for organizing Shantenu Agarwal
Bits In Bio Journal Club: Proteomics May 15th, Virtual
Thank you Steve Cheney for putting this together!
👀 In Case You Missed it ..
Xaira launches with promises as big as its 1 Billion Dollar Seed round.
The company called Xaira, incubated by ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs and cofounded by the legendary Baker lab at the University of Washington, is poised to transform drug discovery and development using advanced AI technologies. Describing it'self through the trademarked phrase “Learning the Language of Life™, the company claims it will use AI seeks streamline the drug development process, particularly focusing on designing molecular structures that could lead to new, more effective treatments. Little has been shared in terms of how they will accomplish this and how that will be differentiated from the hundreds of competing organization. For more detailed insights, you can explore the full articles on TechCrunch, BioSpace, and FierceBiotech.
Moderna makes hundreds of AI apps with the support from its OpenAI partnership
Moderna updated on its 2023 partnership with OpenAI, aimed at incorporating AI to enhance its mRNA medicine development. This initiative has led to the creation of 750 applications within a few months, integrating OpenAI's tech throughout Moderna’s operations. However, responses to this integration have been mixed. Some critiques focus on the perceived superficiality of the applications and question the practicality of having so many. Despite optimism about using AI in pharmaceuticals, there are reservations about ChatGPT’s limitations, such as its inability to source its outputs and its use of potentially outdated data. OpenAI has recognized these issues, highlighting that ChatGPT operates without internet access, may provide incorrect information, and could generate biased or inappropriate content. See each organizations posts about it here, and here.
📰 Top Community Conversations
@Ghulam Memnon inquired as to the barriers to data generation/acquisition in bio!
@Marissa Moore is workshopping an idea of “Snowflake for Life Sciences”
@Eleanor Davies is poking around for a lost of the recent pharma layoffs
@Sam Khan is wondering if bio comp methods competitions wou;d be of interest!
@Kathy Y. Wei is looking for resources to help computation people get comfy with bio!
🙋 🙏 Community Asks
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🏢 Job Openings
Notable postings below - over 100 more on our community job board!
CTO/Founding Engineer at Voyant Bio
Developer Advocate at Seqera
Technical Team Lead, Data Products at Proscia
Sales Director, Life Sciences, US East at Proscia
Manager, Software Development at Proscia
Software Engineer at Proscia