At last month’s Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, Eleanor Howe, founder and CEO of Diamond Age Data Science, presented the Trends with the Trenches session based on gathered input from colleagues, clients, and advisors across the life sciences field. Coding agents were the central topic—how they’re speeding up software development, open source maintenance, and analysis workflows while also shifting new types of responsibility to the human reviewer. Now, “just coding” is no longer enough, and Howe provides advice for early-career scientists on how to get hired in a different environment. Plus, she covers why simulating data can backfire, why smaller purpose-built models often win, and why better data curation, active learning, ELN automation, and federation may matter more than another flashy model demo.

Links from this episode:
Bio-IT World Conference & Expo
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Diamond Age Data Science

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.

Your AI plan can’t outrun your data. Adam Marko, life science field CTO at Hammerspace, joins the podcast to unpack the problem almost every biotech, pharma, and biomedical research group runs into: unstructured data that are siloed, fragmented, and scattered across storage systems, sites, and clouds. With host Jessica StLouis, they talk through what “data orchestration” means when building an AI-ready data foundation, infrastructure constraints and the tiered storage patterns that help teams keep AI and HPC workloads moving, and why life sciences are in a uniquely tough spot. Plus, Marko shares a preview of his presentation at Bio-IT World Conference & Expo in Boston.

If you care about faster discovery, smoother AI workflows, and fewer manual file moves, subscribe, share this with a colleague, and rate or review so more researchers can find the conversation.

Links from this episode:
From Data Chaos to Discovery: Building the Data Foundation for AI-Ready Scientific Research
Bio-IT World Conference & Expo
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Hammerspace

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.

AI is now good enough to change how computational biology teams actually work, but most companies are still adopting it like it’s 2023. Sonia Timberlake, R&D strategy consultant for Timberlake & Maclsaac Biopharma Consulting, speaks with host Eleanor Howe about what’s real: agentic coding, high-throughput data workflows, and the practical limits that still slow teams down. Timberlake digs into benchmarks for capabilities and end-to-end tasks, as well as multimodal chart understanding, source verification, and where human review remains non-negotiable. The conversation also explores beyond AI to what biopharma risks missing, why novel targets still matter, and where investment interest is clustering right now. Plus, tune in to get a preview of Timberlake’s workshop at Bio-IT World Conference & Expo in Boston next month!

If this helped you think more clearly about AI in drug development and computational biology, subscribe, share the show with a colleague, and leave a review so more builders can find the conversation.

Links from this episode:
Workshop: AI Upskilling for Computational Biology Teams
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Diamond Age Data Science

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.

Joining Trends from the Trenches is Allissa Dillman, founder and CEO of BioData Sage, and LaFrancis Gibson, manager for health promotion at ORAU, who discuss this year’s Bio-IT World Conference & Expo Hackathon sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE) Training Center. With host Allison Proffitt, they discuss which tools and datasets from CFDE will be part of the Hackathon, who should participate, learning and collaborating beyond datasets and tools, FAIR principles in an ever-developing AI environment, and a message beyond the teams that are participating.

Links from this episode:
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Bio-IT World Europe
BioData Sage
ORAU

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.

Computing resources are no longer just pieces of tech—they're scientific instruments. Moffitt Cancer Center’s Jarett DeAngelis, director of scientific information technology, and Shane Corder, senior HPC engineer, join cohost Jessica StLouis, senior scientific consultant at BioTeam, to discuss new approaches changing access to HPC resources and how platforms like Open OnDemand are simplifying the HPC experience for those unfamiliar with the system. They also share their thoughts on the future of HPC resources, what the Moffitt Cancer Center is planning, and what they expect to see in the field in the coming years.

Links from this episode:
Bio-IT World
BioTeam
Bio-IT World Europe
Moffitt 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.

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.