insitro Hires AI and Machine Learning Visionary, Emily Fox, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President of AI/ML
April 30 2024 - 7:30AM
Business Wire
insitro, a machine learning-powered drug discovery and
development company, today announced the appointment of Emily Fox,
Ph.D., as senior vice president of AI/machine learning. In this
role, she will oversee those areas as well as data science and
computational biology, inclusive of data modalities that span
genetics, omics, imaging, clinical data, and molecular design. Dr.
Fox, a professor in the Department of Statistics and Department of
Computer Science at Stanford University, has made groundbreaking
contributions in the application of machine learning in healthcare,
with her pioneering work directly translating into patient
impact.
"AI leaders of Emily’s caliber who simultaneously have an
understanding of biology and health are rare, and we are privileged
to have recruited her to lead our AI/ML teams,” said Daphne Koller,
Ph.D., co-founder and CEO. “Her groundbreaking work in machine
learning, alongside her track record in translating research into
impactful applications in healthcare, aligns perfectly with our
mission to revolutionize drug discovery through data-driven
approaches. Emily's stellar track record of innovation and
leadership, recognized with prestigious awards and accolades,
underscores her exceptional contributions to the field. We're
thrilled to welcome her wealth of knowledge and visionary insight
to our team at insitro."
“The transformative power of machine learning in redefining
biology is increasingly recognized, and insitro is uniquely
positioned to translate this potential to improve human health
through the seamless integration of massive biological and clinical
datasets together with cutting-edge machine learning methods,
providing insights never uncovered before,” said Dr. Fox. “These
insights are going to be transformative in accelerating the
discovery of novel targets and the development of molecules that
interact with them, marking a new era in therapeutic innovation. As
someone passionate about machine learning for human health, to be
at a company where machine learning is a core part of the mission
and is integrated into the entire pipeline from data collection to
scientific discovery and drug development is truly inspiring.”
Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Fox established, grew, and led
the Health AI team at Apple, where she was a Distinguished
Engineer. At Apple, her team collaborated cross-functionally on
health and wellness projects leveraging Apple’s ecosystem of
devices and software, as well as studies with partners including
Aetna, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, and the Seattle Flu Study.
She also served as the Amazon Professor of Machine Learning in the
Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and
Department of Statistics at the University of Washington. Her
academic research has focused on discovering interpretable latent
structure from complex, high-dimensional scientific and clinical
datasets, with an emphasis on data arising in genomics and
neuroscience, and on machine learning for healthcare applications,
including the use of wearable devices and other in-the-wild sensing
modalities.
Her work has been recognized with her selection as a CZ Biohub -
San Francisco Investigator (2022-2027) and serving as the NeurIPS
Program co-chair in 2019. She has also been awarded a Presidential
Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), Sloan
Research Fellowship, ONR Young Investigator award, and NSF CAREER
award. Her Ph.D. thesis was recognized with the Leonard J. Savage
Thesis Award in Applied Methodology and MIT EECS Jin-Au Kong
Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Prize.
Fei-Fei Li, an AI pioneer, Sequoia Professor of Computer Science
and founding Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute,
Stanford University, said, “Having had the privilege of knowing and
working with both Emily Fox and Daphne Koller for many years, I’ve
witnessed firsthand their definitive contributions to machine
learning, particularly in healthcare. With Emily joining insitro,
their combined efforts in leveraging AI for biology discovery and
drug development are set to revolutionize the field. It’s
collaborations like these that highlight the power of diverse minds
in AI, driving not just technological progress, but societal
betterment as well.”
About insitro
insitro is a drug discovery and development company applying
machine learning (ML) and generative AI to data at scale to decode
biology for transformative medicines. At the core of insitro’s
approach is the convergence of in-house generated multi-modal
cellular data and high-content phenotypic human cohort data. These
data are used to develop ML models that expand insitro’s data
tensor via imputation, uncover underlying biologic state, and
elucidate high-impact genetic modulators of disease. These powerful
models rely on extensive biological and computational
infrastructure and allow insitro to advance novel targets and
patient biomarkers, design therapeutics, and inform clinical
strategy. insitro is advancing a wholly owned and partnered
pipeline of insights and therapeutics in neuroscience, oncology,
and metabolism. Since launching in 2018, insitro has raised over
$700 million from top tech, biotech, and crossover investors, and
from collaborations with pharmaceutical partners. For more
information on insitro, please visit www.insitro.com.
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Media Contact Dan Budwick dan@1abmedia.com Company Contact Eric
McKeeby Communications Advisor eric@insitro.com