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AWS Life Sciences Symposium 2026
Accelerating life sciences transformation with agentic AI. The event is at capacity and is no longer accepting registrations.
Location
Javits Center, 429 11th Ave, New York, NY 10001Date
Tuesday, April 14, 2026Agentic AI is here—are you ready?
Join us at AWS Life Sciences Symposium 2026, the industry’s premier technology event, to explore what’s next for AI-driven discovery, development, and patient impact. Through visionary keynotes, curated breakouts, and hands-on demos, discover how AWS and our partners are transforming life sciences innovation with agentic AI, machine learning, and cloud-scale data.
Keynote speakers
Diogo Rau
Executive Vice President, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Eli Lilly & Company
Eden Wells
Chief Insights and Decision Science Officer, Novartis
Aviv Regev (Virtual Pre-recorded Video)
Head, Executive Vice President, Genentech Research and Early Development
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Co-founder and CEO, Manas AI
Dan Sheeran
VP and GM, Healthcare & Life Sciences, AWS
Yashodhara Dash
VP, Strategy & Growth, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Agenda
- Registration and check-in: 8:00 - 9:00 AM ET
- Plenary keynote: 9:00 - 10:45 AM ET
- Coffee & networking: 10:45 - 11:15 AM ET
- Breakout tracks: 11:15 AM - 3:00 PM ET
- Lunch: 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET
- Coffee & networking: 3:00 - 3:30 PM
- Closing address: 3:30 - 4:00 PM ET
- Evening reception: 4:00 - 6:00 PM ET
Explore the curated event tracks
Discover how AWS drives innovation across the value chain, brought to life by real customer stories.
- Track 1: Research and Drug Discovery
Powering AI-first discovery—from AI-ready data foundations to autonomous research agents accelerating target identification and molecule design, to making AI accessible to all scientists.
- Track 2: Clinical Trials
Reimagining clinical trials end to end with AI—from accelerated protocol design, informed trial execution, and streamlined regulatory submissions—with proven impact.
- Track 3: Commercial & Medical Affairs
Activating AI across commercialization—unlocking market intelligence, modernizing sales and medical engagement, and personalizing patient experiences.
- Track 4: Medtech and Medical Devices
Building and deploying AI across the value chain, and unlocking innovations like AI-assisted surgery, remote patient monitoring and intelligent care delivery.
- Track 5: Tech Building
Hands-on builder workshops around AI-ready data to agentic applications that turn AI strategy into production reality.
Detailed track-wise agenda
- 11:15 AM - 11:25 AM ET
- Presented by: AWS
- Lee Tessler, Principal Technology Strategist, Worldwide Life Sciences, AWS
- 11:25 AM - 12:05 PM ET
- Presented by: Boltz, Twist Biosciences, John Hopkins University, and AWS
- Gabriele Corso, Co-founder and CEO, Boltz
- Colby Souders, Chief Scientific Officer, Twist Biopharma Solutions
- Michael Chungyoun, Chemical Engineering PhD candidate
- Jeffrey Gray Lab, Johns Hopkins University
- Jiwon Kim, Product Lead - AWS AI Life Sciences, AWS
- 12:05 PM - 12:35 PM ET
- Presented by: Sanofi and AWS
- Pradeep Bandaru, Head of platforms and AI workflows
- Sanofi Sabyasachi Dasgupta, Head of R&D Data Products, Sanofi
- Lee Tessler, Principal Technology Strategist, Worldwide Life Sciences, AWS
- 12:35 PM - 1:05 PM ET
- Presented by: Roche and AWS
- Arick Huensche, Global head of Gen AI platforms, Roche
- Brian Loyal, Principal AI/ML Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services
- 2:00 PM - 2:20 PM ET
- Presented by: Lila Sciences
- Sponsored by NVIDIA
- Bob Gantzer, VP of Next Generation Platform, Lila Sciences
- 2:20 PM - 3:00 PM ET
- Presented by: Noetik, Apheris, BMS, and AWS
- Ron Alfa, CEO and Co-Founder, Noetik
- Robin Roehm, CEO & Co-Founder, Apheris
- Payal Sheth, Senior Vice President, Therapeutic Discovery Sciences, Bristol Myers Squibb
- Hasan Poonawala, Senior AI/ML Solutions Architect for Healthcare and Life Sciences, AWS
Opening & Vision Setting
Closing the Loop: AI-assisted Antibody Design and Experimental Validation
Compressing Discovery Cycles — Building a Centralized DBTL Approach on AWS
Beyond Research Agents: Accelerating Scientific Workflows with Agentic AI
Lunch - 1:05 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Scaling AI Science Factory on AWS and NVIDIA
Advancing AI Models for Biology: Data-driven Model Training
- 11:15 AM - 11:20 AM ET
- Presented by: AWS
- Deepak Nair, Director, Life Sciences & MedTech, AWS
- 11:20 AM - 11:50 AM ET
- Presented by: Novartis
- Dana Iommazzo, Global Head, Clinical Operations Program Management, Novartis
- 11:50 AM - 12:20 PM ET
- Presented by: BCG and Merck
- Nigel Markey, Managing Director and Partner, BCG
- Nikhil Kavimandan, Executive Director, Enterprise Strategy, Merck
- Gopi Gopinath, AVP, Technology Partnership, R&D IT, Merck
- Jess Striker, Sr. Director, Global Trial Optimization, Merck
- 12:20 PM – 1:00 PM ET
- Presented by: AWS, Novo Nordisk, and Labcorp
- Praveen Haridas, World Wide Lead - HCLS Real World Data & Solutions, Healthcare & Life Sciences, AWS
- Abhilasha Ramasamy, AVP and head, Clinical Data Science and Evidence, Novo Nordisk
- Bola Oyegunwa, EVP, Chief Information and Technology Officer, Labcorp
- 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM ET
- Presented by: Eli Lilly
- Jill Riley, VP Clinical Supply Planning and Delivery, Eli Lilly and Company
- Mohit Gupta, Senior Director, Clinical Supply Planning and Delivery, Tech, Eli Lilly and Company
- 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM ET
- Presented by: Bayer and AWS
- Daniel Gusenleitner, VP of RnD Technology, Bayer
- Sarper Gurel, Principal Solutions Architect, AWS
Opening and vision setting
AI-powered study design and trial planning
AI-enabled site selection
Unlocking Real-world Data and Evidence for Faster, Data-driven Clinical Trial Insight
Lunch - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Lilly's clinical trial supply chain control tower
Clinical trial data integration: From execution to enterprise intelligence
- 11:15 AM - 11:25 AM ET
- Presented by: AWS
- Boris Bodgan, Director, AWS
- 11:25 AM - 11:50 AM ET
- Presented by: Merck
- Vijay Parmeshwaran, Associate Vice President (AVP), Data Strategy, Products & Innovation, Merck
- 11:50 AM - 12:15 PM ET
- Presented by: AstraZeneca
- Ravi Gopalakrishnan, VP, Data Science & AI, Advanced Analytics, AstraZeneca
- 12:15 - 1:00 PM ET
- Presented by: Amazon Pharmacy, Eli Lilly, and AWS
- Tanvi Patel, VP and GM, Amazon Pharmacy
- Rachel Silvestrini, VP Business Insights and Analytics, Eli Lilly and Company
- Steven J RommeneyGlobal VP, Engineering, Capabilities, and Platforms, Eli Lilly and Company
- Dennis Lauth, WW Head, Life Sciences Commercial Strategy & Solutions, Amazon Web Services
- 2:00 - 2:30 PM ET
- Presented by: PwC and BMS
- Kingston Smith, Principal, PwC
- Sean Crawford, Executive Director, Analytical AI, Bristol Myers Squibb
- Kenny Cole, Director, 340B Strategy, Bristol Myers Squibb
- 2:30 - 3:00 PM ET
- Fireside chat with: ZS and Johnson and Johnson
- Ankit Jain, Managing Partner (Principal), ZS
- Dharmesh Thakkar, Head of Technology & Product Group Leader - Commercial Operations, Data, Analytics & AI, Johnson and Johnson
Opening and vision setting
Reinventing martech and content with AI
The AI-augmented sales rep – redefining salesforce excellence with AI
Beyond patient support: Transforming end-to-end patient experiences with AI
Lunch - 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET
Managing gross-to-net and 340B: Reducing leakage and protecting margins
Semantic data layer: Pharma's AI imperative
- 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM ET
- Presented by: AWS
- Rowland Illing, Chief Global Medical Officer, AWS
- 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM ET
- Presented by: Johnson and Johnson MedTech
- Daniel Carchedi, Global Head of Partnerships & Alliances, Polyphonic, Johnson and Johnson MedTech
- Alexandre Hennen, Global Head of Design, Polyphonic, Johnson and Johnson MedTech
- 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM ET
- Presented by: Medtronic
- Rashmi Kumar, CIO, Medtronic
- Karl Anderson, Sr. Director - Product Innovation, Medtronic
- 2:00 PM - 2:15 PM ET
- Panel with: Presented by: DocSpera
- Samuel Ethiopia, Co-Founder and CEO, DocSpera
- 2:15 PM - 2:30 PM ET
- Presented by: Diligent Robotics
- Andrea Thomaz, Co-Founder and CEO, Diligent Robotics
- 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM ET
- Panel with: Thermo Fisher, Philips, and Cytiva
- Rowland Illing, Chief Global Medical Officer, AWS
- Sean Baumann, VP, Digital and AI, Life Sciences, Diagnostics, and Applied Sector, Thermo Fisher Scientific
- Chris Batten, VP, Digital, Data & AI, Cytiva Wilson To, VP, Head of Strategy, Philips
Opening and vision setting
Multimodal AI ecosystem on AWS: Reducing surgical variabilities and improving patient outcomes
Therapies to Insights: Medtronic’s Digital Transformation Towards Insight Driven Care
Lunch - 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET
DocSpera: From Devices to Patient Impact
Transforming Healthcare Operations with Robotics and AI
Panel: Views from the Top - Unlocking Innovation with an Enterprise Data Strategy and AI
- 11:15 AM - 11:30 AM ET
- Presented by: AWS
- Eric Brooks, Principal Solution Architect, AWS
- 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM ET
- Presented by: AWS
- Navneet Srivastava, Leader, Analytics Data and AI, Amazon Web Services
- 11:45 - 12:00 PM ET
- Presented by: Roche
- Frank Rydbirk, Domain Lead Data Integration and Insights, Roche
- Paulina Święcicka, Global Data and Analytics Leader, Roche
- 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET
- Please bring your laptops to participate
- 2:00 - 2:15 PM ET
- Presented by: AWS
- Brian Loyal, Principal AI/ML Solutions Architect, AWS
- 2:15 - 3:15 PM ET
- Please bring your laptops to participate
Democratizing access to developer resources at scale
Building an agentic AI-ready data foundation at enterprise scale
Roche: Building an Enterprise Semantic Data Layer
Hands-on workshop: Building a comprehensive AI-ready data foundation using sample datasets
Lunch - 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET
Best practices for multi-agent workflows for Life Sciences
Hands-on workshop: Building multi-agent systems with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and the Strands Agents SDK
Why Attend
The AWS Life Sciences Symposium is a full-day, in-person conference designed for industry leaders and builders who want to take control of their AI destiny. The agenda features high-impact sessions led by innovators across the industry, sharing real-world experiences on how AI, data, and cloud technologies are transforming life sciences today—along with practical lessons learned. As the largest technology gathering in the industry, the symposium brings together the industry ecosystem - big pharma, med tech innovators, startups, and partners - under one roof to connect, exchange ideas, and explore what’s actually working. Beyond the stage, the Innovation Hub showcases “art of the possible” demonstrations from AWS and AWS partners, bringing emerging technologies and advanced data capabilities to life through possible demos.
Hear from industry leaders, including:
Join the year’s most impactful gathering for life sciences innovation
Domain tracks for business leaders:
- Join domain-focused tracks with peer executives and AI innovators as speakers
- Preview AWS solutions and exclusive partner offerings to accelerate time-to-value
- Experience art-of-the-possible demos of agentic AI tackling key business challenges
- Network with peers, AWS experts, and life sciences visionaries
Technical deep-dive for builders:
- Attend hands-on workshops on foundation models, autonomous labs, and real-world data
- Join deep dives with AWS experts on AWS architecture, agentic frameworks, and model orchestration
- Get foundational guidance that goes beyond standard documentation
- Network with AWS leaders, cloud builders, and global peers
Breakout speakers
Rowland Illing
Chief Global Medical Officer, AWS
Kenny Cole
Director, 340B Strategy, Bristol Myers Squibb
Sean Crawford
Sean Crawford, Executive Director, Analytical AI, Bristol Myers Squibb
Ravi Gopalakrishnan
VP, Data Science & AI , Advanced Analytics, AstraZeneca
Payal Sheth
Senior Vice President, Therapeutic Discovery Sciences, Bristol Myers Squibb
Rachel Silvestrini
VP Business Insights and Analytics, Eli Lilly and Company
Steven J Rommeney
Global VP, Engineering, Capabilities, and Platforms, Eli Lilly and Company
Jill Riley
VP Clinical Supply Planning and Delivery, Eli Lilly and Company
Rashmi Kumar
CIO, Medtronic
Tanvi Patel
VP and GM, Amazon Pharmacy
Sean Baumann
VP, Digital and AI, Life Sciences, Diagnostics, and Applied Sector, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Bola Oyegunwa
EVP, Chief Information and Technology Officer, Labcorp
Ron Alfa
Co-founder and CEO, Noetik
Gabriele Corso
Co-founder and CEO, Boltz
Robin Roehm
CEO & Co-Founder, Apheris
Colby Souders
Chief Scientific Officer, Twist Biopharma Solutions
Bob Gantzer
VP of Next Generation Platform, Lila Sciences
Nikhil Kavimandan
Executive Director, Enterprise Strategy, Merck
Gopi Gopinath
AVP, Technology Partnership, R&D IT
Vijay Parmeshwaran
Associate Vice President (AVP), Data Strategy, Products & Innovation, Merck
Abhilasha Ramasamy
AVP and head, Clinical Data Science and Evidence, Novo Nordisk
Sabyasachi Dasgupta
Head of R&D Data Products, Sanofi
Arick Huensche
Global head of gen AI platforms, Roche
Karl Anderson
Sr Director - Product Innovation, Medtronic
Mohit Gupta
Senior Director, Clinical Supply Planning and Delivery, Tech, Eli Lilly and Company
Dana Iommazzo
Global Head, Clinical Operations Program Management, Novartis
Paulina Święcicka
Global Data and Analytics Leader, Roche
Frank Rydbirk
Domain Lead Data Integration and Insights, Roche
Dharmesh Thakkar
Head of Technology & Product Group Leader - Commercial Operations, Data, Analytics & AI, Johnson and Johnson
Daniel Carchedi
Global Head of Partnerships & Alliances, Polyphonic, Johnson and Johnson MedTech
Alexandre Hennen
Global Head of Design, Polyphonic, Johnson and Johnson MedTech
Nigel Markey
Managing Director & Partner, BCG
Ankit Jain
Managing Partner (Principal), ZS
Kingston Smith
Leader, Analytics Data and AI, PwC
Michael Chungyoun
Chemical Engineering PhD candidate, Jeffrey Gray Lab, Johns Hopkins University
Navneet Strivastava
Leader, Analytics Data and AI, Amazon Web Services
Boris Bodgan
Director, AWS
Deepak Nair
Director, Life Sciences & MedTech, AWS
Lee Tessler
Principal Technology Strategist, Worldwide Life Sciences, AWS
Dennis Lauth
WW Head, Life Sciences Commercial Strategy & Solutions, Amazon Web Services
Pradeep Bandaru
Head of platforms and AI workflows, Sanofi
Chris Batten
VP, Digital, Data & AI, Cytiva
Brian Loyal
Principal AI/ML Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services
Praveen Haridas
World Wide Lead - HCLS Real World Data & Solutions, Healthcare & Life Sciences, AWS
Sarper Gurel
Principal Solutions Architect - Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Jiwon Kim
Product Lead - AWS AI Life Sciences, AWS
Hasan Poonawala
Senior AI/ML Solutions Architect for Healthcare and Life Sciences, AWS
Samuel Ethiopia
Co-Founder and CEO, DocSpera
Jess Striker
Sr. Director, Global Trial Optimization, Merck
Dan Gusenleitner
VP R&D Technology, Bayer
Eric Brooks
Principal Solution Architect, AWS
Wilson To
VP, Head of Strategy, Philips
Andrea Thomaz
Co-Founder and CEO, Diligent Robotics
Who should attend
The symposium's specialized tracks offer deep insights, hands-on learning, and actionable strategies for:
- Business leaders entrusted with transforming research, trials, manufacturing, and commercial operations with data and AI in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical device companies
- Technology leaders working to establish robust cloud foundations and build AI-applications that enable business transformation
- Engineers, architects, and data scientists seeking hands-on learning from AWS experts to master building on AWS with proven frameworks, methodologies, and architectural designs
Don’t miss the year’s most impactful gathering for life sciences innovation.
The sessions were highly relevant. I am going back and checking the usage of these genAI and ML services at my organization to bring it all together.
Attendee, CIO, Top 10 Pharma
It’s not often I go to an event where every talk is relevant and interesting. Thank you for including me.
Attendee, Founder, Techbio Startup
The event was a right mix of knowledge sharing and networking.
Attendee, AI Engineer, Pharma Organization
Everything you need to know about Gen AI and ML all in one day
Attendee, SVP or Research, Big Pharma
The event did an amazing job of stating the problem, explaining the approach, and walking through exactly how to solve it with the outcome. This is what I can take back to my business.
Attendee, Head of Data and Analytics, Mid-sized Pharma
Networking Reception & Next-Gen Tech Expo
Connect with fellow industry leaders from across the life sciences industry during our networking reception. Interact with business and product leaders from across AWS, explore new technology demos by AWS and our sponsoring partners, and catch the latest offerings showcasing the art-of-the-possible.
Meet and connect with featured startups at the Innovation Hub
Thank you to our event sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Sponsor meetings
You can book meetings directly with our Gold sponsors at the AWS Life Sciences Symposium! Simply use the sponsor booking links below to schedule one-on-one time and maximize your event experience.
ZS is a management consulting and technology firm that partners with companies to improve life and how we live it. We transform ideas into impact by bringing together data, science, technology and human ingenuity to deliver better outcomes for all. Founded in 1983, ZS has more than 13,000employees in over 35 offices worldwide.
PwC
PwC is a team of industry specialists committed to helping your organization deliver positive outcomes for patients and investors. We can help you reinvent your business model by reshaping portfolios, innovating the patient experience, digitizing the value chain, resetting the cost base and transacting to transform.
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