Biotech Chief Data Officer Milind Kamkolkar Joins Advisory Board of AI-Powered Life Science R&D Accelerator BenchSci

TORONTO, Jan. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- BenchSci today announced the appointment of Milind Kamkolkar to its advisory board effective January 1, 2019. Kamkolkar brings more than 15 years of experience leading big data and AI initiatives in life science, most recently as Chief Data Officer with Sanofi.

"We're honored to have Milind as a member of our advisory board," says Liran Belenzon, CEO, BenchSci. "Milind is one of the most experienced leaders in life science when it comes to using data and machine learning to drive discovery. We look forward to his guidance as we work with industry partners to expand use of our biomedical AI in drug discovery."

"Machine learning and AI with strong discipline in data practices is a must-have for any R&D organisation," says Kamkolkar. "Scientists expect more thoughtful and relevant automation to help accelerate their ability to drive insights whilst in lab. What BenchSci is building out is a remarkable set of capabilities to do exactly that. I am proud to support and advise the BenchSci team as they build out their capabilities to advance the world of R&D."

Kamkolkar joins a board of exceptional advisors selected for their technical and industry expertise. This includes luminaries such as Professor Richard Zemel, Research Director of the Vector Institute, and Karen Padgett, founder of Novus Biologicals.

ABOUT BENCHSCI

Backed by Google's AI fund, Gradient Ventures, and built by life scientists for life scientists, BenchSci's AI reads biomedical papers and maps their findings to navigate researchers to new discoveries faster. Using data from more than 10 million publications, this map leverages the world's most comprehensive, evidence-based biological knowledge graph. Unlike other bioinformatics tools, it helps researchers find unexpected connections, generate unconsidered hypotheses, avoid repeating prior experiments, and adopt the best materials and methods. This catalyzes faster, more cost-effective, and higher impact discoveries by academic and industry partners. BenchSci's first product, an antibody search engine, helps researchers find reliable antibodies up to 24x faster and use commercial antibodies up to 75% more cost-effectively. It now powers discoveries in 15 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and more than 2,000 academic institutions.

ABOUT MILIND KAMKOLKAR

Milind Kamkolkar is the CDO of VL49—a Flagship Pioneering Company. Milind is both an intrapreneur and entrepreneur and joined Flagship from a career spanning big pharma, big and boutique consulting firms, and numerous technology and software startup companies focused on health, technology, and data. His relentless commitment to excellence has led to multi-billion dollar impacts stemming from blending digital, insights and partnership approaches across industries to solve complex human health problems at scale. Milind is a featured speaker (TedX), Business Transformation Top 150 Leader, and thought leader in digital health, AI, blockchain and big data. Milind serves as a Board Advisor and mentor to Hu-manity.co, OccamzRazor, Curisium, and Robbie.ai. He is also Honorary Lecturer for physician entrepreneurship at BartsX, 2015-17 Faculty at Exponential Medicine, and a Former Special Advisor to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

SOURCE BenchSci