AI for Small Molecules and Biologics

Hello Everyone,
We would like to invite you to the next AI in Pharma MeetUp, which will focus on AI for Small Molecules and Biologics.

Save the date (11 December 2025) and join us to explore how AI is transforming drug discovery across small molecules and biologics — and to connect with experts. (Address: Luise-Ullrich-Straße 14, 80636 Munich).

Thanks to our co-sponsor: Reply Concept

Agenda Overview:
6:30 PM - Door Open, Drinks & Networking

7:00 PM - Welcome Introduction

7:05 PM - Talk 1: Proteins - from in silico to in vitro
Dr. Matthias Steiger
Head of Translational Partnerships,
Invitris

7:35 PM - Talk 2: Accelerating Drug Discovery: How AI/ML and Agentic Systems are Transforming Pharma R&D
Steven Ford, PhD
Healthcare and Life Sciences Business Development Leader - EMEA,
Amazon Web Services (AWS)

8:05 PM - Drinks, Snacks & Networking

Talks Details:

Talk 1
Title: Proteins - from in silico to in vitro

Abstract:
AI can now generate high-value protein and peptide therapeutic designs in minutes, yet translating these digital candidates into real, safe, and testable biologics still takes months. Traditional biomanufacturing is bottlenecked by cell-line development, scale-up, purification and analytics and often stretching timelines to 12–18 months from DNA design to drug-substance readiness. At Invitris, we bridge this gap between in silico design and in vitro reality. Our cell-free expression platform converts AI-generated protein designs directly into functional proteins within hours. By using optimized transcription–translation systems in an open, cell-free environment, we eliminate cell engineering and growth cycles, enable direct biochemical manipulation, and support rapid, parallelized prototyping.This accelerates the entire design–build–test loop, unlocks high-throughput screening across a broader protein design space, and provides an immediate physical execution layer for AI-generated biologics. With Invitris, developers can move from computational concepts to experimental validation in the same day and fundamentally speeding innovation in drug discovery and biomanufacturing.

Speaker:
Dr. Matthias Steiger, Head of Translational Partnerships
Invitris

Biography:
Dr. Matthias Steiger is the Head of Translational Partnerships at Invitris GmbH, where he focuses on advancing the screening, engineering, and manufacturing of proteins and complex protein assemblies—such as phages—using cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS). His work centers on leveraging and improving CFPS platforms, from protein design to scalable production.
Before joining Invitris, Matthias completed his PhD in the lab of Prof. Volker Sieber at the Technical University of Munich in collaboration with ETH Zurich. His research involved developing a cell-free ultrahigh-throughput screening system for discovering novel enzymes from metagenomic DNA, including the preparation of cell extracts for CFPS and the design of dedicated assay formats.
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Talk 2
Title: Accelerating Drug Discovery: How AI/ML and Agentic Systems are Transforming Pharma R&D

Abstract:
The pharmaceutical industry faces mounting pressure to accelerate drug discovery timelines and quality of candidates to reduce pipeline development risk. This presentation explores how cloud-enabled AI/ML technologies and emerging agentic systems are addressing these challenges and fundamentally transforming the drug discovery landscape. We examine the evolution from high-performance computing for virtual screening and molecular dynamics simulations to breakthrough applications of Biological Foundation Models (BioFMs)—large-scale AI models trained on vast biological datasets that are revolutionizing protein design, structure-based drug design, and target identification. With the latest advancements in the field of agentic AI, we look at how pharma are using these tools to autonomously plan, execute, and iterate on complex R&D workflows. Through real-world examples, we explore how pharmaceutical companies are deploying these technologies at scale, providing insights into the current state of AI-driven drug discovery.
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Speakers:
Steven Ford, PhD
Healthcare and Life Sciences Business Development Leader - EMEA,
Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Biography:
Steven J. Ford, Ph.D. is Principal Business Development Manager for Life Sciences EMEA at Amazon Web Services, leading digital transformation strategies for pharmaceutical customers across emerging technologies including AI/ML, Generative AI, and Agentic AI. With 15+ years spanning the life sciences value chain, he previously held positions at iThera Medical GmbH and completed postdoctoral research at Helmholtz Zentrum München, publishing extensively on biomedical imaging and analysis. Steven earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Washington State University, where his research in regulatory protein structure-function secured competitive awards including fellowships from the American Heart Association. He enjoys community engagement and participates regularly in international life sciences technology forums.