BayBifx - Strand Life Sciences

Come join Bay Area BioInformatics and Strand Life Sciences for an amazing night of talks and networking!

Strand Talk 1: LLMs and RAGs for WES/WGS clinical analysis
Presenter: Dr. Ramesh Hariharan, CEO

Abstract: The talk will outline phenotype-related challenges that make the processing of WES/WGS clinical cases onerous. It will then describe automation strategies using LLMs and vector embeddings for associated problems, including automatic conversion of clinical notes to HPO and evaluation of genotype-phenotype correlation for shortlisted genes. The talk will cover results that appeared in ASHG 2024 and results that have been submitted to ISMB 2025.

Customer Talk 1: MRD: A Breakthrough Assay with Big Data Needs
Presenter: Salika Dunatunga, Software Engineer, Myriad Genetics
Abstract: MRD (Molecular Residual Disease) is assayed using cfDNA (cell-free DNA) to detect low levels of tumor DNA. The Myriad Precise MRD test uses a custom WGS-derived (Whole Genome Sequencing) patient panel to accurately monitor disease recurrence. We will discuss the engineering of a sophisticated multi-cloud orchestration system to handle big data challenges in the context of MRD.

Strand Talk 2: Automated data curation using LLMs and RAGs
Presenter: Dr. Radhakrishna (RK) Bettadapura, VP of Research Informatics

Abstract: Extracting information from free-flowing text is necessary for creating large AI-ready datasets. Strand’s single-cell portal curates metadata from single-cell experiments, today comprising 19m cells from ~3000 samples across IBD and Neurodegenerative disorders. The talk will describe the automation of text extraction towards the creation of this portal using LLMs and RAGs

This event will be available both in person or via Webinar.

Please register for the Webinar here:
https://myriad.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_U6Lb_zrLRhyszWE5s9LcYA

The recording of the webinar will be available after the event. If you would like a copy of the recording please contact Jaya Singh (jaya@strandls.com) or Shane Brubaker (shanebrubaker55@gmail.com)

Parking will be available in the garage next to Myriad and will be open until 9:30.

Food and drinks will be provided.