The Future of Co-Folding and Federated Learning with Apheris
Robin Rohm, CEO and Co-Founder of Apheris, joins Ross Katz to explore how federated learning is unlocking secure, cross-company collaboration in pharma. Discover how Apheris is enabling biopharma leaders to train cutting-edge co-folding models without sharing sensitive data, why AlphaFold 3 wasn’t enough, and what OpenFold 3 means for the future of AI in drug discovery.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
>> Why federated learning is a game-changer for pharma data sharing and AI-driven research
>> How OpenFold 3 builds on AlphaFold’s legacy to solve the protein-ligand interaction challenge
>> The role of structural benchmarking in model development and validation
>> How Apheris enables privacy-preserving collaboration between major pharma players
>>The importance of high-quality, proprietary datasets in advancing co-folding model accuracy
Meet Our Guest
Robin Rohm is the CEO and Co-Founder of Apheris, a leader in federated data networks for life sciences. With a background in mathematics and computational genomics, Robin is advancing secure AI collaboration in pharma and biotech.
About The Host
Ross Katz is Principal and Data Science Lead at CorrDyn. Ross specializes in building intelligent data systems that empower biotech and healthcare organizations to extract insights and drive innovation.
Connect with Our Guest:
Sponsor: CorrDyn, a data consultancyConnect with Robin Roehm on LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
Follow the podcast for more insightful discussions on the latest in biotech and data science.Subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!Connect with Ross Katz on LinkedIn
Sponsored by…
This episode is brought to you by CorrDyn, the leader in data-driven solutions for biotech and healthcare. Discover how CorrDyn is helping organizations turn data into breakthroughs at CorrDyn.
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Automating biopharma knowledge work with Convoke
What if biotech teams could automate the most information-intensive parts of bringing a drug to market? In this episode of Data in Biotech, host Ross Katz speaks with Convoke co-founders Alex Telford and Maged Ahmed about building an AI-native knowledge acquisition and curation system for biopharma. Learn how they're transforming clinical research, regulatory writing, and competitive intelligence using LLMs, semantic search, and scalable data infrastructure.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
>> How Convoke unifies public and private biotech data into a single workspace for smarter decision-making
>> Why structured outputs and semantic layers are key to high-quality AI-driven insights
>> Real-world use cases including clinical trial design, competitive landscape analysis, and regulatory documentation
>> How feedback loops and model evaluations drive product reliability and user trust
>> The future of AI in biotech: continuous decision-making and multimodal intelligence
Meet Our Guests
Alex Telford is Co-Founder and CEO of Convoke, an AI-native OS transforming drug development workflows. His background in life sciences consulting drives his mission to unify data and streamline outputs like clinical documents and regulatory submissions.
Maged Ahmed is Co-Founder of Convoke and a former AI lead at Applied Intuition. He brings deep data infrastructure expertise to biotech, aiming to reduce friction in regulated environments by automating knowledge generation.
About The Host
Ross Katz is Principal and Data Science Lead at CorrDyn. Ross specializes in building intelligent data systems that empower biotech and healthcare organizations to extract insights and drive innovation.
Connect with Our Guest:
Sponsor: CorrDyn, a data consultancyConnect with Alex Telford on LinkedIn Connect with Maged Ahmed on LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
Follow the podcast for more insightful discussions on the latest in biotech and data science.Subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!Connect with Ross Katz on LinkedIn
Sponsored by…
This episode is brought to you by CorrDyn, the leader in data-driven solutions for biotech and healthcare. Discover how CorrDyn is helping organizations turn data into breakthroughs at CorrDyn.
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How Eli Lilly’s new platform TuneLab codevelops AI models with biotech
Dr. Aliza Apple, VP of Catalyze360 AI/ML at Eli Lilly, joins Ross Katz to unveil TuneLab—a first-of-its-kind federated learning platform accelerating preclinical drug discovery. Learn how Lilly’s billion-dollar models are empowering early-stage biotechs, the science behind federated learning, and what this means for the future of pharmaceutical R&D.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
>> How Eli Lilly's TuneLab democratizes access to proprietary AI models trained on decades of pharmaceutical data
>> What federated learning means for IP protection and collaborative data sharing in biotech
>> Which two key use cases are driving TuneLab’s impact today: small molecule ADME and antibody developability
>> How TuneLab’s early adopters like Firefly Bio and Superluminal are shaping the platform’s evolution
>> Why generalizability—not just accuracy—is the true power of collaborative AI in drug development
Meet Our Guest
Dr. Aliza Apple is VP of Catalyze360 AI/ML at Eli Lilly and a biotech trailblazer with deep roots in AI-driven drug discovery. She has led initiatives from founding startups to heading Lilly Gateway Labs and now pioneers innovation at the intersection of data and biotech.
About The Host
Ross Katz is Principal and Data Science Lead at CorrDyn. Ross specializes in building intelligent data systems that empower biotech and healthcare organizations to extract insights and drive innovation.
Connect with Our Guest:
Sponsor: CorrDyn, a data consultancyConnect with Aliza Apple on LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
Follow the podcast for more insightful discussions on the latest in biotech and data science.Subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!Connect with Ross Katz on LinkedIn
Sponsored by…
This episode is brought to you by CorrDyn, the leader in data-driven solutions for biotech and healthcare. Discover how CorrDyn is helping organizations turn data into breakthroughs at CorrDyn.
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Inside Merck's Computational Biology Approach with Jesper Ryge
In this episode of Data in Biotech, host Ross Katz talks with Jesper Ryge, Director of Computational Biology at Merck Germany. Jesper shares his journey from neuroscience labs to leading computational teams, offering deep insights into disease modeling, target discovery, and multi-omics integration. Discover how AI and spatial transcriptomics are shaping the future of pharma R&D.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
>> How single-cell and spatial transcriptomics enhance disease mechanism discovery
>> Why data integration and knowledge graphs are critical for target validation
>> How computational biology teams interface with wet lab research
>> What makes Merck Germany's data strategy unique in biotech
>> How generative AI is changing how pharma interprets complex datasets
Meet Our Guest
Jesper Ryge is Director of Computational Biology at Merck Germany. A biophysicist by training, he brings deep expertise in neuroscience, single-cell analysis, and bioinformatics to pharmaceutical R&D.
About The Host
Ross Katz is Principal and Data Science Lead at CorrDyn. Ross specializes in building intelligent data systems that empower biotech and healthcare organizations to extract insights and drive innovation.
Connect with Our Guest:
Sponsor: CorrDyn, a data consultancyFind out more about MerckConnect with Jesper Ryge on LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
Follow the podcast for more insightful discussions on the latest in biotech and data science.Subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!Connect with Ross Katz on LinkedIn
Sponsored by…
This episode is brought to you by CorrDyn, the leader in data-driven solutions for biotech and healthcare. Discover how CorrDyn is helping organizations turn data into breakthroughs at CorrDyn.
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Where Biotech Innovation Really Happens: 50th Episode Special with Wolfgang Halter, Jacob Oppenheim, and Dave Johnson
To mark our 50th episode, host Ross Katz brings back three visionary leaders—Dave Johnson (Dash Bio), Wolfgang Halter (Merck Life Science), and Jacob Oppenheim (RAVen)—together for a reflection on the evolution of biotech. They unpack the realities behind AI hype, the future of data-driven innovation, and what’s really changing in drug development.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
>> Where real innovation is emerging across startups, big tech, and academia
>> The biggest misconceptions about data in biotech—and why they persist
>> What it takes to build trust in AI-powered biotech tools
>> Why progress in biotech depends as much on execution as it does on breakthroughs
>> How industry veterans see the future of automation, regulation, and global competition
Meet Our Guests
Dave Johnson is CEO and Co-Founder of Dash Bio and former Chief Data & AI Officer at Moderna. He’s pioneering automation in clinical bioanalysis to accelerate drug development.
Wolfgang Halter leads Data Science at Merck Life Science, developing tools like BayBE to optimize R&D through smarter data modeling and open-source innovation.
Jacob Oppenheim is a Venture Partner at RAVen and co-founder of Fresnel. With a PhD in Biological Physics, he champions the transition to digital-native biopharma.
About The Host
Ross Katz is Principal and Data Science Lead at CorrDyn. Ross specializes in building intelligent data systems that empower biotech and healthcare organizations to extract insights and drive innovation.
Connect with Our Guest:
Sponsor: CorrDyn, a data consultancyConnect with Dave Johnson on LinkedIn Connect with Wolfgang Halter on LinkedInConnect with Jacob Oppenheim on LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
Follow the podcast for more insightful discussions on the latest in biotech and data science.Subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!Connect with Ross Katz on LinkedIn
Sponsored by…
This episode is brought to you by CorrDyn, the leader in data-driven solutions for biotech and healthcare. Discover how CorrDyn is helping organizations turn data into breakthroughs at CorrDyn.
Data in Biotech is a fortnightly podcast exploring how companies leverage data to drive innovation in life sciences.
Every two weeks, Ross Katz, Principal and Data Science Lead at CorrDyn, sits down with an expert from the world of biotechnology to understand how they use data science to solve technical challenges, streamline operations, and further innovation in their business.
You can learn more about CorrDyn - an enterprise data specialist that enables excellent companies to make smarter strategic decisions - at www.corrdyn.com