AI tuning proteins, games tuning AI — The agentic future of AI in protein design & biomedical research
We’re back for the second edition of Bits in Bio Berlin! 🚀
This meetup continues our mission to bring together curious minds at the intersection of biology, computation, and data — whether you’re in academia, industry, or somewhere in between. In this edition, we focus on current and future trends of AI in protein design from advances in structure prediction to agents and tailored engineering tools, to exploring the influence of RL and gaming in life science research. We’re thrilled to welcome three outstanding speakers this time. Following the talks, stick around for 🍕, 🍺 and great conversation with fellow builders in the Berlin bio-tech scene.
Schedule
18:30 | Doors open & arrivals
19:00 | Dr. Seydou Traoré — Advancing protein design with AI
19:30 | Dr. Sebastian Rämisch — Extending the protein design toolkit - Examples for customizing existing ML tools
20:00 | Snacks break
20:15 | Dr. Adam Streck — From digital pets to Nobel prize
20:45 | Opentrons — How-to generate protocols for the robots
20:50 | Networking, food & drinks!
📍 MDC-BIMSB, Hannoversche Str 28, 10115 Berlin
🕕 Wednesday, Sept 10th | 18:30 – 21:30
Talks
Dr. Seydou Traoré — Advancing protein design with AI
Deep learning and AI-driven advancements in protein structure prediction facilitated by publicly available protein data and computational infrastructure have paved the way for a transformative decade in protein science, opening up new possibilities in biotechnology and therapeutic development ranging from the creation of new enzymes, to design of antibodies for challenging targets, to de novo design of protein binders from target structures. This talk explores how the full potential of protein design is yet to be realized in the next decade through increased availability of functional biological data, multimodal protein design models, and most notably through AI agents optimizing research planning and prompt-driven protein design.
Dr. Sebastian Rämisch — Extending the protein design toolkit - Examples for customizing existing ML tools
Machine learning has become central to protein design, but many existing tools need to be adapted for specific research and application goals. This talk presents examples of how customizing ML models can unlock new capabilities in protein engineering and in the creation of novel protein-based materials, bridging the gap between general-purpose models and application-driven discovery.
Dr. Adam Streck — From digital pets to Nobel prize
While at first an unlikely combination, games and biomedical research have intersected many times over the past two decades. From crowd-sourced problem solving to reinforcement learning approaches inspired by gameplay, these overlaps have shaped how data is collected, interpreted, and applied in science. This talk explores key examples of how gaming concepts have advanced biomedical research, and reflect on the potential of playful systems to inspire future discoveries.
This event is brought to you by the Berlin chapter of Bits in Bio, in collaboration with InstaDeep.
Bits in Bio is a global community building at the intersection of software and biotech. Our mission is to bring together the tech and bio communities to share knowledge and build software tools to empower scientific discovery. We organize meetups, Q&As with industry leading figures, hackathons, and much more to facilitate connections in this space.
InstaDeep is a pioneer in decision-making AI, driven by human values & the belief that AI can help everyone. We specialise in applying Reinforcement Learning to tackle complex challenges & empower businesses to realise the benefits of AI technologies. Our impact and global footprint expanded significantly in 2023 when InstaDeep became part of the BioNTech Group, which shares our innovative culture and a common vision to leverage AI for good.
Additionally, we are joined by our friends from Opentrons, a pioneer in Lab robotics & automation.