Our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) has been critical in helping us shape the technology and business efforts based on the scale of portfolio challenges of today and the needs of tomorrow. 

BenchSci’s SAB consists of world leading pharmaceutical executives that oversee the strategic scientific, operational, data and financial initiatives that drive the progression of assets through the R&D pipeline. Given their extensive leadership experience and responsibilities at the largest pharmaceutical organizations in the world, they provide invaluable insight to BenchSci as to how the convergence of AI and science need to catalyze the speed and success of the portfolio at enterprise scale.  The focus is how to develop and implement innovative AI solutions to address the challenges that impede the progression of assets from early discovery to clinical trial.

I’m incredibly excited that three powerhouse leaders from Roche and Sanofi have joined our SAB.  

Sylke Poehling was invited to join based on her impressive tenure leading continuous stages of the preclinical pipeline, spanning early discovery through to clinical development. As the Senior Vice President and Global Head of Therapeutic Modalities at Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development (pRED) she also brings to the SAB the perspective required to guide strategic portfolio decisions across multiple therapeutic areas, from clinical candidate selection to pivotal trial “Go” decision. Both her scientific leadership and pipeline authority provide an invaluable perspective to the decisions that impact single projects and how they scale to cumulatively impact the entirety of R&D, as well as all the stakeholders along that process.

Scott Oloff was invited to join based on his extensive experience leading data science initiatives across major pharma. As the Senior Vice President and Global Head of Data and Analytics at Roche pRED, Scott’s team drives all data, analytics, & technology capabilities to develop breakthrough medicines for unmet patient needs. Scott provides invaluable perspective as to how internal and external data sets can be harnessed to precipitate insights to propel projects forward, and how the entire data ecosystem supporting one of the largest R&D organizations globally must evolve in harmony with emerging AI technologies.

Although it is rare to have two SAB members represented from a single pharmaceutical company, the complementary combination of data and analytics, with science and portfolio leadership was both incredibly fortuitous and also aligned perfectly with the foundational principles of ASCEND by BenchSci.

Matt Truppo was invited to join based on his unique role and experience across the end-to-end pharma pipeline, from individual molecules, projects, enterprise platforms, and ultimately portfolio decisions. Matt Truppo currently serves on Sanofi’s R&D Leadership team and is Global Head of Research Platforms for Sanofi, where he oversees the full range of research platform capabilities, including Integrated Drug Discovery, Large Molecule Research, Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics, Translational Models, and Pre-Clinical Safety. Matt’s broad experience and 360 perspective connect the biological product to the processes to the portfolio, and help reimagine the decision-making that then connects and empowers scientists at every stage of the pipeline progression. With Matt’s help, we explore how data-informed decision-making can not only drive the successful progression of assets, but overall operational efficiencies that underlie resource management which can catalyze portfolio speed and health at scale. 

For SAB members, participation allows them to work at the cutting edge in the space with a global leader in preclinical AI solutions for pharma. Both in understanding the rapid development of AI, but also just as importantly, how to shape the use and application of these powerful technologies based on their deep understanding and unique perspectives of their experience and responsibilities. Monthly discussions often surface novel ideas for supporting key business priorities as discussions are hyper-pragmatic and focused on ways to address the underlying challenges of biopharma at scale. 

Sylke, Scott and Matt join science advisors Steve Hitchcock, Global Head of Research at Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Philip Larsen, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Research at Bayer Pharmaceuticals; and Philip Tagari, former Vice President of Research (Therapeutic Discovery) at Amgen. BenchSci's advisory board also includes technology advisors Jean-Michel Lemieux, Former CTO/VPE Shopify & Atlassian, Milind Kamkolkar, CDO at Cellarity, and Richard Zemel, Research Director at Vector Institute; and culture advisor Jessica Neal, Venture Partner at TCV.