🎉 2026 SAPA Science and Career Symposium Successfully Held at Rutgers University!
On May 2nd, hundreds of life science professionals gathered at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for a day of learning, networking, and hands-on innovation under the theme "Accelerating Innovation, Reshaping Careers."
The symposium kicked off with welcome remarks from Wei Ding, PhD (President, SAPA; Head of Bioinformatics and Data Science, Alexion AstraZeneca), followed by an introduction from Symposium Chair Brian Jiang (Senior Manager of Digital R&D Creation Center, Pfizer). Blair Bu (Global Senior Partner, Healthcare & Life Sciences, IntelliPro Group) shared encouraging insights on market recovery and talent trends heading into 2026.
Morning Keynote Speakers:
🎤 Gang Chen, PhD (Senior Vice President, Protein Expression Sciences, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals) — delivered a compelling keynote on Regeneron's technology platforms driving accelerated antibody and drug discovery.
🎤 Fei Wang, PhD (Frances and John L. Loeb Professor of Medical Informatics; Associate Dean of AI & Data Science, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University) — presented on harnessing AI and multi-agent systems to reverse pharma's mounting efficiency challenges.
🎤 Peter Schafer, PhD (Chair, Prognostic Lung Fibrosis Consortium, PROLIFIC) — shared insights on biomarker-driven precision medicine and its translation from discovery to clinical implementation.
🎤 David Donne, PhD (Vice President & Group Head, Oncology Regulatory Affairs III, Bayer) — explored regulatory strategy dimensions in precision oncology, emphasizing alignment among patient, drug, and tumor context.
A few more highlights from an incredible day:
🍱 Lunch & Learn Session — Sponsored by opAIda, Inc.. AI leaders and industry experts showcased AI-native CRO workflows, live demos, and real-world applications in regulated life sciences.
🔬 Scientific sessions on CAR-NK therapy, cancer epigenetics, immune checkpoints, and translational medicine.
🤖 Discussions on AI co-scientists, agentic workflows, and AI-driven evidence generation in biopharma R&D.
🛠️ A hands-on Agentic AI Workshop where teams rapidly built functional pharma AI agents.
💼 Career development panels, mock interviews, networking roundtables, and 500+ on-site job opportunities.
🚀 A startup forum on building AI-powered ventures in healthcare and life sciences.
🌙 Networking & Executive Dinner — Sponsored by Jiuzhou Pharma/九洲药业.
The event also featured 500+ on-site job opportunities and meaningful conversations about the future of our industry.
Huge thanks to all the speakers, panelists, sponsors (especially IntelliPro Group), volunteers, and the SAPA organizing team.
For more event details: https://lnkd.in/e79c3fNz
Looking forward to what's next! 🙌
#SAPA #Biopharma #ArtificialIntelligence #DrugDiscovery #CareerDevelopment #LifeSciences #PrecisionMedicine #AgenticAI #Networking #Innovation