📍 AWS Builder Loft, San Francisco #BuilderLoft
📅 October 22, 2026
⏰ 5:00 to 7:00 PM

Register here: https://events.builder.aws.com/bdRXZ5 

Join us for an evening focused on the next frontier of AI in life science, bringing together leaders from Optagon Labs, Benchling, AIX Ventures, BigHat Biosciences, and LatchBio for a conversation on how AI is reshaping scientific research and drug development.

The program will begin with a panel discussion exploring where the field is heading, what new capabilities are becoming possible, and what it will take to bring more advanced AI systems into real scientific and development workflows.

The panel will be followed by presentations from teams participating in the Self-Accelerating AI for Drug Development Hackathon, where drug developers, scientists, and AI engineers have spent the week building around real problems from the drug development process.

AI is moving beyond individual tools and into increasingly complex scientific workflows.

Our panelists will discuss how advances in models, agents, biological data infrastructure, and scientific software are changing what can be built for life science. The conversation will examine opportunities across scientific reasoning, experiment design, data analysis, research infrastructure, and drug development, as well as the challenges involved in translating technical progress into systems that scientists can use in practice.

Khalil Kaddoura (moderator), CEO, Optagon Labs

Krish Ramadurai, Partner, AIX Ventures
Nicholas Larus-Stone, Head of AI, Benchling; Founder, Bits in Bio
Charbel Eid, VP of Platform, BigHat Biosciences
Alfredo Andere, CEO, LatchBio

Following the panel, teams from the Self-Accelerating AI for Drug Development Hackathon will present what they built during the week.

The hackathon pairs people working directly in drug development with AI engineers and technical builders. Teams start from real scientific and operational workflows, then prototype systems designed around those problems.

At the closing event, teams will share the problem they worked on, the system they developed, and what they learned from applying AI to real drug development workflows.

🧪 Drug developers and scientists
🧬 Computational biologists and bioinformaticians
🤖 AI and machine learning engineers
🔬 AI and biological researchers
🚀 Biotech founders and operators
💻 Scientific software and infrastructure builders
💼 Investors and life science leaders

5:00 to 5:30 PM | 🤝 Arrival and Networking

5:30 to 6:00 PM | 🎙️ Panel: The Next Frontier in AI for Life Science

6:00 to 6:40 PM | 🚀 Hackathon Team Pitches

6:40 to 7:00 PM | 🤝 Networking and Closing

❤️ Supported by AWS and Cole-Frieman & Mallon

Join us at the AWS Builder Loft to hear from leaders shaping AI in life science, see what teams built during the hackathon, and meet others working at the intersection of AI, biology, and drug development.

📍 See you at the Loft! We're at 525 Market St, 2nd Floor, San Francisco. Quick heads up: you'll need a government-issued photo ID and you have to be 18+ to enter. Also, we don't have parking for bikes or scooters, so find street parking nearby (they're not allowed in the building! sorry!).