Team VPE

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Artificial Intelligence

Team VPE

Next Generation Virtual Patient Engine for Clinical Translation of Drug Candidates

The goal of team VPE is to develop a versatile computational platform that can predict the efficacy of first- or best-in-class drug candidates in virtual patient populations at an unprecedented accuracy, thereby addressing one of the most critical bottlenecks of the pharmaceutical industry today: a 90% failure rate of new drug candidates during clinical development. In partnership with Sanofi, the VPE team will develop innovative artificial intelligence methods to build the virtual patient platform. As a proof-of-concept, the initial platform will focus on chronic immune-mediated diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), where new medication that can address patient heterogeneity is needed.

 Mentors
  • Dr. Thomas Klabunde (Industry Mentor)
    Global Head of Translational Disease Modeling in Data & Data Sciences, Sanofi
  • Dr. Jan Korbel (Academic Mentor)
    Head of Data Science, European Molecular Biology Laboratory
 Publications
  1. Xinhao Yi, Siwei Liu, Yu Wu, Douglas McCloskey, Zaiqiao Meng, BPP: a platform for automatic biochemical pathway prediction, Briefings in Bioinformatics, Volume 25, Issue 5, September 2024, bbae355, https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbae355

You can also find us on GitHub

Team Location BioMed X Institute Heidelberg

The research of this team is kindly supported by Sanofi.

Our Team Members

Dr. Douglas McCloskey

Group Leader

 Short Bio
  • 2021 – 2022: Chief Scientist, co-founder of AliveX Biotech, Shanghai, China
    • Leading the development of an advanced immune systems biology platform for the identification of biomarkers and drug targets in cancer, autoimmunity, and neurology
  • 2018 – 2021: Group leader, Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
    • Leading a group of researchers, including analytical chemists and automation & software engineers, to develop big–omics data generation workflows along with advanced machine learning and biochemical modeling algorithms to learn from this type of data
  • 2017: Postdoc at the Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
  • 2010 – 2016: PhD in Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, USA
 Contact

Dr. Gurdeep Singh

Bioinformatician

 Short Bio
  • 2021 – 2023: PostDoc, Russell lab, Heidelberg University, Germany
  • 2017 – 2021: PhD, Russell lab, Heidelberg University, Germany
  • 2015 – 2017: Research Assistant, Heidelberg University, Germany
  • 2014 – 2015: Bachelor’s thesis at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium &Heidelberg University, Germany
  • 2010 – 2015: Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronics), BITS Pilani, India
 Contact

Dr. Lilija Wehling

Computational Biologist

 Short Bio
  • 2021 – 2022: Postdoctoral researcher at the Molecular Hepatopathology Laboratory, Heidelberg University Hospital
  • 2017 – 2021: PhD Student in Systems Biology at BioQuant (Heidelberg University) and the Pathology Institute of the Heidelberg University Hospital
  • 2013 – 2016: Master of Science in Systems Biology, Heidelberg University
 Contact

Dr. Ahmad Wisnu Mulyadi

Algorithm Researcher

 Short Bio
  • 2018 – 2024: PhD in the Dept. of Brain & Cognitive Engineering, Korea University, South Korea
  • 2015 – 2016: Master of Engineering in the Dept. of Interdisciplinary Program of Information Systems, Pukyong National University, South Korea
  • 2013 – 2016: Master of Science in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia
 Contact

Sanjana Balaji Kuttae

Computational Biologist, Research Assistant

 Short Bio
  • 2018 – 2023: Master of Science in Bioinformatics, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany
  • 2011 – 2015: Bachelor of Technology in Bioinformatics, SRM University, Chennai, India
 Contact

Rakesh Hadne Sreenath

Intern

 Short Bio
  • 2023 – Present: Master of Science in Applied Data Science and Analytics, SRH University, Germany
  • 2022 – 2023: Post-Degree Diploma in Data Science, Purdue University, USA
  • 2021 – 2023: Software Engineer, Tech Mahindra, India
  • 2016 – 2020: Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication Engineering, UBDT Collage of Engineering, India
 Contact

Ansh Kumar

Master's Student

 Short Bio
  • April 2024 – present: Master of Science in Applied Data Science and Analytics, SRH University, Heidelberg, Germany
  • January 2023 – February 2023: NLP & Automation Intern, R. Chandra & Associates, Lucknow, India
  • November 2022 – November 2022: Data Analyst Intern, Honeywell, Roorkee, India
  • July 2022 – September 2022: Database Intern, CSIR – Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, India
  • 2019 – 2023: Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering, Quantum University, Roorkee, India
 Contact

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