BBSW 2025
“Driving Smarter Decisions: Data, AI, and Statistics”
Nov 6-7, 2025
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Foster City, CA
We were honored to host Venkat Sethuraman (Genentech/Roche) and Sylvia Plevritis (Stanford University) as our keynote speakers. Their insights provided a forward-looking foundation for the conference.
The invited sessions spanned Statistical and Data Science, Non-technical, and Special Feature tracks, covering topics from AI-driven clinical development and data science solutions to leadership skills in Influence and Negotiation. The Special Feature Fireside Chat explored the evolving role of AI in healthcare. Our poster session and roundtable networking further provided opportunities to showcase research and spark focused discussions across the community.
Conference Agenda (PDF)
Day 1 (Part 1): November 6, 2025 (Thursday) [Magellan Main Room Unless Otherwise Specified]
Time | Speaker | Topic | Speaker | Topic |
7:45-8:45 AM | Registration, Breakfast and Networking | |||
8:45-9:00 AM | Welcome and Opening Remarks | |||
9:00-10:00 AM | Keynote Speech: Venkat Sethuraman (Roche) Topic: Electrifying R&D: The Data, Design, and Digital Revolution in Pharma Chair: Ron Yu (Gilead) | |||
10:00-10:30 AM | Break | |||
10:30 AM-12:30 PM | Statistical Session #1 (Parallel Track): Smarter Acceleration: AI in Clinical Development Chair: Tara Maddala (TigerTeam Bio) | Data Science Session #1 (Parallel Track): Data Science Solutions [Room Syracuse] Chair: Jenny Yuan (Scorpion Therapeutics) | ||
10:30-11:00 AM | Brendan O’Leary (Consultant) | AI-Enabled Medical Devices – Engaging Effectively with Regulators | Chendi Liao (Recursion Pharma) | The Climb and the View: How Open-Source Technologies Empower Small Pharma |
11:00-11:30 AM | Will Ma (HopeAI) | AI Teammates in Clinical Development: Integrating Clinical Insights with Statistical Innovations | Daniel Sjoberg (Genentech) Workshop: ARDs + AI: Building the Future of Clinical Reporting with {gtsummary} and {cards} | |
11:30 AM-12:00 PM | Xin Zhao (Day One Biopharmaceuticals) | AI Empowered Clinical Trial Ecosystem | ||
12:00-12:30 PM | Babak Alipanahi (Exal Bio) | AI Meets RNA for Early Lung Cancer Detection | ||
12:30-1:30 PM | Lunch and Networking | |||
1:00 -1:30 PM | Poster Viewing | |||
Day 1 (Part 2): November 6, 2025 (Thursday) [Magellan Main Room Unless Otherwise Specified]
Time | Session |
1:30-3:00 PM | Non-technical Session: Influence and Negotiation Speaker: Charlotte Freeman (Gilead) Title: Insight to Influence: Strategic Communication to Get More of What You Want Chairs: Merrill Birkner (Gilead) and George Wu (Gilead) |
3:00-3:10 PM | Chito Hernandez (Stillwave & UCSD) The Art of Getting Unstuck: What Comes Next? |
3:10-3:40 PM | Poster Lightning Intro Chairs: Nalin Tikoo (TrapezoidX) and Haijun Ma (Exelixis) |
3:40-3:50 PM | Break |
3:50-4:00PM | Ted Lystig (BridgeBio) Recent (Statistical) Developments in DC and Potential Implications |
4:00-4:10 PM | Judy Li (AstraZeneca) From Data to Decisions: The Multi-Disciplinary Edge for Modern Statistician |
4:10 -5:10 PM | Special Feature: Fireside Chat with May Wang (Palo Alto Networks) Topic: Exploring Uncharted Territory – the Role of AI in Modern Healthcare Host: Jing Huang (CareDx) |
5:10-5:40 PM | Raffle |
5:40-6:40 PM | Speed Networking [Room Syracuse] Chairs: Nalin Tikoo (TrapezoidX) and Haijun Ma (Exelixis) |
5:40-7:00 PM | Mixer and Happy Hour |
Day 2 (Part 1): November 7, 2025 (Friday) [Magellan Main Room Unless Otherwise Specified]
Time | Speaker | Topic | Speaker | Topic |
8:00-8:45 AM | Registration, Breakfast and Networking | |||
8:45-9:00 AM | Day 2 Opening Remarks | |||
9:00-10:00 AM | Keynote Speech: Sylvia Plevritis (Stanford) Topic: Multimodal AI in Biomedical Research and Clinical Care Chair: Ray Lin (Genentech) | |||
10:00-10:30 AM | Break | |||
10:30 AM-12:30 PM | Statistical Session #2 (Parallel Track): Frameworks and Strategies for Driving Smarter Decisions Chair: Godwin Yung (Genentech) | Data Science Session #2 (Parallel Track): Data Standards and Beyond [Room Drake] Chair: Zijie Yuan (Encoded Therapeutics) | ||
10:30-10:45 AM | Mark van der Laan (UC Berkeley) | Targeted Learning as a Principled Statistical Approach for Decision Making | Jingyuan Chen (Genentech) Coen Bernaards (Genentech) | PRO Outputs in Oncology and the FDA Technical Specifications Guidance |
10:45-11:00 AM | Dominique Kagele (Roche) | Powering Trials, Empowering Decisions: The Biostatistician’s Dual Role in Governance | ||
11:00-11:15 AM | Trina Weller (Ulu Ventures) | Beyond Data: The Role of Decision Science | Navdeep Pal (Genentech) | Real-World Data – Analysis-Ready Datasets: A Standardised, Specialised and Innovative Data Solution for Efficient Real-World Data Analysis |
11:15-11:30 AM | Jing Huang (CareDx) | Making the Hard Calls: Executive Strategies and How You Can Shape Decisions from Any Seat | ||
11:30 AM-12:00 PM | Panel Discussion | Wei Cui (Cytokinetics) | Strategic Programming Leadership in Small Biotech: Building Submission & Inspection-Ready Deliverables from the Ground Up | |
12:00-12:30 PM | Yingying Wei (Genentech) | Using Large Language Models for Consistency Checking Tables, Listings, and Graphs | ||
12:30-2:00 PM | Lunch and Networking | |||
1:00-2:00 PM | R Meetup [Room Drake] Moderators: Peng Zhang (CIMS) and Yinqi Zhao (Genentech) Sara Altman (Posit) - Getting Started with LLMs in R: Tools and Best Practices Nalin Tikoo (TrapezoidX) - Leveraging AI and R for Efficient Clinical Trial Reporting: A Phase I Case Study Q&A with Sara and Nalin | |||
Day 2 (Part 2): November 7, 2025 (Friday) [Magellan Main Room Unless Otherwise Specified]
Time | Speaker | Topic | Speaker | Topic |
1:00-1:30 PM | Poster Viewing (voting due by 1:45pm via BBSW App) | |||
2:00-2:20 PM | Poster Awards With Remarks by Haoda Fu (Amgen) | |||
2:20-4:20 PM | Statistical Session #3 (Parallel Track): Smarter Trial Designs and Analyses Chair: Mengjia Yu (AbbVie) | Data Science Session #3 (Parallel Track): Data Analytics and AI [Room Drake] Chair: Gianna Huang (Gilead) | ||
2:20-2:50 PM | Jitendra (Jeetu) Ganju (Ganju Clinical Trials) | Designing Better Clinical Trial Endpoints and Analysis Methods | Jing Dai (Jazz) | Streamlining Machine Learning Modeling in Neuroscience Clinical Trials through Cross-Functional Collaboration |
2:50-3:20 PM | Susan Halabi (Duke University) | Predictive Modeling with Artificial Intelligence for Stratification and Enriched Biomarker-Driven Trial | Yi Hong (Gilead) | Agentic Solution for Clinical Trial Enrollment Forecasting |
3:20-3:50 PM | Yang Song (Neurocrine) | Dose Switching after Interim Dose Selection in Seamless Two-Stage Adaptive Designs | Chaithanya Bandi (Genentech) | Agentic AI in Pharma: Multi-Agent Architecture for Accelerating Operational Workflows |
3:50-4:20 PM | Daniel Gillen (UC Irvine) | Are Futility Bounds Futile? | Kevin Lee (Clinvia) | Leveraging Gen AI (ChatGPT, Gemini) API for Advanced Biometric Analysis in SAS, Python and R |
4:20-4:40 PM | Break | |||
4:40-5:30 PM | Sponsor Talks, Raffle, and Closing Remarks | |||
5:30-6:30 PM | Mixer and Happy Hour | |||
Vendor Exhibits all day for both days.