Simon PODKOLZIN received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering in Moscow, Russia. He continued his studies at the graduate level at the University of London in England. After receiving a graduate diploma in 1991, he worked for UOP in Guildford, Surrey, England and in Des Plaines, Illinois, USA. In 2001, Simon PODKOLZIN completed his Ph.D. studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA and joined the Corporate Research of The Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan, USA. Simon PODKOLZIN joined the faculty of Stevens Institute of Technology in 2009. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate Chemical Engineering and Materials Science courses. His research group focuses on molecular understanding of heterogeneous catalysts. Prof. PODKOLZIN is currently on sabbatical at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA.
Laurent HOFFER, Ph.D is a Research Scientist at the Drug Discovery department of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). His main focus has been the computer-aided development of molecular probes and potent inhibitors for diverse targets, including protein kinases, bromodomains and WDR-domain containing proteins. Dr. Hoffer received his Ph.D. in chemoinformatics from the University of Strasbourg (Pr Varnek Lab) in 2013. During his doctoral research, he specialized in the molecular docking of small organic compounds and their optimization through in silico methods. He pursued his post-doctoral fellowship at the Cancer Research Centre of Marseille (CRCM, France) in the Morelli team, where he developed the molecular modeling methods (DOTS & CovaDOTS) for the structure-guided optimization of compounds. Finaly, he also contributed to the development of the ChemoDOTS web-server (https://chemodots.marseille.inserm.fr).
Marty is a process chemist (by training) but has been working on documentation platforms and technologies for the past decade. He is part of a team that is focused on evolving a modern pharmaceutical development organization towards a structured data-first documentation paradigm, using a widely diverse set of tools from BIOVIA and others. He’s been using Pipeline Pilot, the focus of this presentation, since 2015, generally in the context of OneLab-based solutions.
Expertise: Digital transformation, Drug Discovery, Scientific Informatics
Bio: Ceren TUZMEN Walker is a Senior Manager of Brand Marketing at BIOVIA. Ceren has degrees in Molecular Biology and Genetics, Computational Biology, and Bioengineering, and over 10 years of expertise in scientific content development. She also led marketing initiatives at the University of Pittsburgh, where she was instrumental in driving scientific innovation towards commercialization. Ceren is passinoate about empowering scientists with the right tools to accelerate scientific innovation.
Chris began his career as a molecular biologist, focusing on identifying and cloning novel cellular mobility and signaling proteins. The sequence analysis aspect of this work led him to program automated analysis pipelines, eventually transitioning into software product management.
Over the past 10 years at BIOVIA, Dassault Systèmes, Chris has worked as a Professional Services Project Manager, focusing on CPG companies, and as a Formulations Product Portfolio Director. Both roles center on identifying and delivering the best solutions for BIOVIA’s customers. A Massachusetts native, Chris is a lifelong Boston sports fan.
Expertise: Data Science, Machine Learning, Data pipelining, Pipeline Pilot, Pipeline Creator, Machine Learning Workbench
Clement is an Aerospace Engineer with 10 years of experience, having worked in France, Germany, and the US. Specializing in aerospace engineering, cloud computing, and data science, he has collaborated with industry leaders such as Dassault Systèmes, NASA, and Airbus. Now a Product Manager at Dassault Systèmes, Clement oversees the development of cloud-based Machine Learning applications and Pipeline Pilot. He is driven by a passion for health and science topics.
Expertise: Biotherapeutics, Small Molecule Drug Discovery, Application of AI/ML
Bio: Dr. Deepa PANDIT from the Contract Research and Scientific Consulting team is Global Head of Life Sciences - Discovery Research at Dassault BIOVIA. She has over 10 years of biotech industry experience and is passionate about solving research issues of the Life Sciences Discovery field. She has deep technical expertise in the field of computational protein design and engineering including antibody-based biologics. She believes that appropriate computational methods reduce experimental burden. Before joining Dassault BIOVIA, she served as a Senior Group Leader, Antigen Design and Protein Expression at Cell Signaling Technology in Massachusetts.
Expertise: Lab Informatics, ELN, LES, LIMS, Instrumentation and Data Acquisition, Data Analytics
Bio: At BIOVIA Gene is providing the vision, strategy and management of the Laboratory Management product portfolio that includes the Electronic Laboratory Notebook, Laboratory Information Management System and the Laboratory Execution system.
Gene has over 30 years of experience in the Life Science industry developing and delivering Laboratory informatics solutions for the research, development and quality control labs.
Prior to joining BIOVIA, Gene led product development efforts for Zymark Corporation and REMP USA.
Gene obtained is BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1991.
Expertise: Laboratory Informatics, LES, LIMS, Digital Transformation, Business Architecting, Change Management, GxP Compliance
Bio: Graham JANSON has a background in Life Sciences as a Quality Control Chemist. He has spent the last 15 years both leading and implementing multi-discipline laboratory transformations with BIOVIA Professional Services. He currently leads a specialized team with the mission of identifying and package repeatable solutions and best practices to accelerate the adoption and enhance the value of BIOVIA solutions.
Expertise: Materials modeling, data pipelining and lab informatics
Bio: Jason DeJONNAIS is an application scientist with 16 years in the BIOVIA brand. Prior to that he “earned” a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Florida playing with toy polymer models on the computer.
Expertise: Laboratory Informatics (LIMS, ELN, LES), Management of Inventory, Equipment, Samples, Test Execution, Data IntegrityTRUE
Bio: Jason SEXTON is a Life Science Solution Consultant in North America at BIOVIA, a Dassault Systèmes brand, having been with the company for almost four years. His background comes from a Bachelor’s degree in biology and over eight years of experience in the Life Science industry, including his last role as a Quality Control Chemist at AstraZeneca.
In his role, Jason leverages his background to provide technical guidance and drive digital transformation for enterprise customers. With a focus on informatics solutions across a diverse spectrum of laboratory settings, he plays a vital role in helping customers achieve their visions for innovation and efficiency.
Expertise: Laboratory Informatics, ELN
Bio: Jennifer TESKE is an LSE Solution Consultant in North America at BIOVIA, a Dassault Systèmes brand. She has been with the company for almost two years and has a background in biochemistry and solid dosage formulation. Jen’s role is in providing scientific and technical support for customers in adopting our solutions for synthetic chemistry, formulation management, and laboratory informatics across the life science and medical device industries.
Expertise: Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Quality Document Management, Quality Process Management, ONE Lab, LIMS, Structured Document Management
Bio: Jessica THEISEN is an Industry Process Consultant in North America at BIOVIA, a Dassault Systèmes brand. She has been with the company for 2 years and she has a Master’s degree in chemistry. Her background is in Pharmaceuticals specializing in Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Stability, and LIMS. Jessica’s role is to provide scientific and technical support for Dassault Systèmes’ customers in adopting our solutions for Document Management, Quality Process Management, and Laboratory Informatics across a range of industries.
Expertise: Digital transformation, Materials Science and Formulation, Drug Discovery, Sustainability, Lab informatics
Bio: DDr. Kai Zhang is the marketing director at BIOVIA, Dassault Systèmes. Dr. ZHANG has over 15 year experience in global marketing, R&D and product development. He is a passionate advocate for empowering scientists to innovate better and faster with advanced software solutions. Dr. ZHANG holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.
Expertise: Computational Biophysics and Chemistry
Bio: Kevin CASSIDY, Ph.D., Biosciences Application Scientist at BIOVIA, obtained his doctorate with a focus on computational biophysics and chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. A member of the Berman and Durrant labs, he focused on combining the advantages of both in silico and in vitro experiments to study the RNA binding protein LARP1. He interfaced between wet and dry labs to design the most effective and efficient experiments that leveraged the strengths of both disciplines. As a pre-sales scientist at BIOVIA, he has contributed to validation studies focusing on small molecule optimization. He supports the BIOVIA Biosciences solutions that have functionality for biologics and/or small molecule design/discovery, such as Discovery Studio and Generative Therapeutics Design.
Expertise: Lab Informatics, ELN, LIMS, Digitalization
Bio: Kirsten GESENBERG is portfolio director for BIOVIA ONE Lab products. She began her career as a small molecule process chemist in the pharmaceutical industry. Since joining BIOVIA more than 15 years ago, she has been involved in the successful implementation of BIOVIA ONE Lab and Workbook across the Life Sciences industry.
Expertise: Scientific Informatics (Cheminformatics, Data Science), ELN, Search, Registration
Bio: Matthew SAGE, Ph.D. is a Senior Product Manager for Scientific Informatics at BIOVIA / Dassault Systèmes and received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry with Molecular Modelling from the University of Bath, UK.
Over the last 20 years he has helped customers from many industries to implement decision support tools that enable them to manage their specific scientific data requirements, ranging from small molecules to reactions and more recently chemically modified bimolecular entities. He also helped grow the Cheminformatics portfolio through various sales, support and services functions to become the industry standard it is today. Currently as a senior product manager, he manages the chemistry solutions at BIOVIA.
Driving Innovation in Food Formulation and Packaging Development with Materials Simulation, Data Modeling, and Lab Informatics
Abstract:
From ingredient performance to material stability, food and beverage companies face complex challenges in developing new formulations and packaging solutions. Achieving the right balance of taste, texture, shelf life, and sustainability requires advanced tools that go beyond traditional trial-and-error methods. Computational materials science accelerates the discovery of novel food ingredients and packaging materials through virtual screening, reducing costly physical testing. A unified lab informatics system enhances efficiency, fosters collaboration, and unlocks the full potential of existing data. Predictive analytics and machine learning further optimize formulation design by guiding material selection, predicting stability, and improving performance outcomes. This presentation explores how integrating virtual and real materials labs is transforming food product and packaging innovation, enabling faster, smarter, and more sustainable R&D.
Nick REYNOLDS is an Industry Process Consultant Director in North America at Dassault Systèmes. He has a background in Materials Science, with a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering. Nick’s and his team’s role is in providing scientific and technical support for Dassault Systèmes’ customers in adopting our solutions for computational materials science, formulation management, laboratory informatics, and data science, across a range of industries.
Expertise: Drug Discovery, Biotherapeutics, Protein Engineering
Bio: Dr. VILLANUEVA completed a PhD in structural biology focusing on drugging protein-protein interactions with fragment derived small molecules. His postdoctoral studies centered around understanding the structure, function and pharmacology of G proteins and GPCRs. As a postdoc, Dr. Villanueva also played a pivotal role in the development of a therapeutic enzyme that has been out-licensed and is currently in phase II clinical trials. He then joined the pharmaceutical industry as a scientist, making contributions in the discovery and development of small molecules, PROTACs and therapeutic antibodies.
Bio: Steven Rieth is a Sr Manager of Chemistry Solutions at Pfizer. Steven has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science and has more than 20 years of management experience in the pharmaceutical R&D, with the main focus on Computational Sciences supporting drug design.
Expertise: 3D Modeling and Simulation, computational chemistry, drug discovery
Bio: Tien LUU is the Product Manager and Principal Scientific Specialist at BIOVIA Dassault Systèmes, managing aspects of life science modeling and simulation predictive science solutions. She began her career as a Scientific Specialist after receiving her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wollongong, Australia. Since joining BIOVIA 22 years ago, Tien’s passion and excitement for helping customers accelerate their R&D have been steadfast and she is committed to improve customer experiences and product successes. In addition, she continues to be an active leader in scientific software product development, new program initiatives, and new applied and fundamental scientific research.
Bio: Hello! My name is Tiffany LAI and I work in informatics in drug product design at Pfizer in Groton, Connecticut. My work involves structuring our scientific data and implementing a variety of digital applications and tools to make our research more efficient. I’m a pharmacist by training, but my love of creating innovative solutions using digital technology has kept in the informatics space for the past 7 years. One of my team’s main projects is creating Tasks for R&D experiments using OneLab’s Compose and Capture, and my role has been focused on business analysis and recipe authoring.
Expertise: AI-driven drug design, Pipeline Pilot
Bio: Ton VAN DAELEN is the Life Sciences Portfolio Lead at BIOVIA / Dassault Systèmes. He has helped pharmaceutical and biotech customers implement cloud solutions to address internal and external research collaboration challenges. Previously, Ton helped grow the Pipeline Pilot product in various support and product management functions and grow it into one of the premier research informatics frameworks in biopharma organizations. Today one of Ton’s interests is using this framework for building solutions that leverage AI and Machine Learning for the design of novel therapeutics. This helps pharma save significant cost in the discovery phase and get new drugs to market faster. Ton has a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from the University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Bio: Dr. Yuriy ABRAMOV is an industrial computational scientist with over 18 years experience at Pfizer Inc. Currently he holds a position of an Executive Director of computational chemistry and data science at J-Star Research/Porton USA. Prior to joining the J-Star Research/Porton USA, Yuriy Abramov worked for 3 years as a VP of scientific affairs at XtalPi Inc. Dr. Abramov also holds a position of an Adjunct Professor at Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is also a Professor of Practice at School of Pharmacy at University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Dr. Abramov is an editor of the book “Computational Pharmaceutical Solid State Chemistry”, an author of 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Chemical Research in Toxicology journal.