As the new year settles in, the industry is anticipating new innovative biotech and learning from past failures. John Keilty, venture partner at Third Rock Ventures, discusses the current trends he sees in biopharma investment, separating the hype from reality of AI (and if the AI bubble will eventually pop), other ventures that should be considered, and how new companies are being built today compared to past years in this episode of Trends from the Trenches. With host Eleanor Howe, founder and CEO of Diamond Age Data Science, Keilty also reflects on the biotech failures of past years and shares his thoughts on the role of computational biologists these days, as well as where bioinvesting is working and not working now.

Links from this episode:

Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Bio-IT World Europe
Diamond Age Data Science
Third Rock Ventures

Bio-IT World’s Trends from the Trenches podcast delivers your insider’s look at the science, technology, and executive trends driving the life sciences through conversations with industry leaders.

Rare diseases do not receive enough attention for the impact they have on patients and their families. This is what AlphaRose’s founder and CEO Casey McPherson learned after his daughter was diagnosed with a rare condition. In a conversation with host Ari Berman, McPherson shares how he switched from music to founding his own pharmaceutical company, what technologies AlphaRose is developing, and how his company is creating environments that allow innovation and iteration. He also shares his thoughts on embracing failure in order to make progress and emphasizes holding compassion and understanding for the patients and families that are impacted by rare diseases—because you never know what it’s like until it happens to you.

Bio-IT World’s Trends from the Trenches podcast delivers your insider’s look at the science, technology, and executive trends driving the life sciences through conversations with industry leaders.

David Hewlett, founder of Tech Bandits, makes learning fun and creates an environment where children—the future generation of scientists—can feel comfortable with curiosity. With host Ari Berman, Hewlett delves into his acting career, which consists of a wide range of scientist roles, and the origins of Tech Bandits. He also shares his thoughts on how science needs to be communicated better (and why scientists need to know how to present their work to the world), what technology can help with regarding the future of life sciences and healthcare, and standardizing data.

Bio-IT World’s Trends from the Trenches podcast delivers your insider’s look at the science, technology, and executive trends driving the life sciences through conversations with industry leaders.

In this special transition episode of Trends from the Trenches, Ari Berman, CEO of BioTeam, takes the mic as the new host of the Trends from the Trenches podcast and speaks with founding host Stan Gloss, co-founder of BioTeam. During their conversation, they cover Stan’s journey as an entrepreneur, including the valuable lessons learned along the way, words of wisdom for people on similar paths, and what he is most proud of during his time at the company. Stan also discusses the impact dyslexia has had on his career and life and his new areas of research.

Links from this episode:
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Bio-IT World Europe
African Centers of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Data-Intensive Sciences: Building The Technology Foundations For Global Growth

Bio-IT World’s Trends from the Trenches podcast delivers your insider’s look at the science, technology, and executive trends driving the life sciences through conversations with industry leaders.

In the first Trends from the Trenches episode of 2025, host Stan Gloss and Dirk Petersen, Director of Supercomputing Center at Oregon State University, talk about the state and role of HPCs in a world that’s focused on AI. Petersen offers his thoughts and insights on working with AI teams, how to converge the traditional HPC user with the AI user, the “Wild West” of AI infrastructure and computing power, and how AI is driving a renaissance in scientific computing and high-performance computing. He also shares a preview of what he will be discussing as a speaker at Bio-IT World Conference & Expo 2025.

Links from this episode:
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Bio-IT World Europe
Oregon State University

Bio-IT World’s Trends from the Trenches podcast delivers your insider’s look at the science, technology, and executive trends driving the life sciences through conversations with industry leaders.

In this episode of Trends from the Trenches, host Stan Gloss and Renee Iacona, vice president of Oncology Biometrics, Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, discuss the process of matching patients with the right treatments, data management (particularly around oncology), and the value of knowledge graphs. Iacona mentions the importance of having scientists who understand AI/ML and AI/ML experts who understand science. She also shares what AstraZeneca is doing with AI, how oncology has changed over the past 20 years, her thoughts on multimodal data, and advice for new scientists and start-up companies taking their first steps into the field.

Links from this episode:
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Bio-IT World Europe
AstraZeneca

Bio-IT World’s Trends from the Trenches podcast delivers your insider’s look at the science, technology, and executive trends driving the life sciences through conversations with industry leaders.

In this episode of Trends from the Trenches, host Stan Gloss discusses high-performance computing and its progress over the years with Rémy Evard, chief digital officer and head of technology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). They delve into the impact of cloud technology, the rapid development of AI (and the overexcitement around it), and the current industry-wide issue of maintaining healthcare quality during a time of declining resources. Evard also shares the responsibilities and challenges of his position at MSK, as well as the work the organization does, such as running thousands of clinical trials per year.

Links from this episode:
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Bio-IT World Europe
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Bio-IT World’s Trends from the Trenches podcast delivers your insider’s look at the science, technology, and executive trends driving the life sciences through conversations with industry leaders.

In this episode of Trends from the Trenches, host Stan Gloss speaks with industry veteran Tom Plasterer, managing director of life sciences innovation at XponentL Data. Plasterer shares his journey of how he became an industry leader, how his time at BG Medicine (then known as Beyond Genomics) helped him with his time at AstraZeneca, what graph technology is and its benefits, and why he returned to start-up companies with XponentL Data. He also gives advice based on his 20+ years of experience in the field to up and coming scientists following in his tracks.

Bio-IT World’s Trends from the Trenches podcast delivers your insider’s look at the science, technology, and executive trends driving the life sciences through conversations with industry leaders.