Roman Kasianov
Covers AI in drug discovery, digital pathology, and translational R&D, editor of "Where Tech Meets Bio"; oversees company profiles, partnerships, and core operations at BiopharmaTrend.
Recent articles from Roman
Sanofi Licenses BenchSci’s Neurosymbolic AI for Global Preclinical R&D
Sanofi has signed a three-year license agreement with Toronto-based BenchSci to deploy the ASCEND platform across its global preclinical research teams. The partnership marks a move to embed neurosymbolic AI into core R&D operations, offering scientists and contractors at Sanofi …
AI Model Built on Transformer Architecture Maps 1,300 Mouse Brain Regions in Data-Driven Atlas
Researchers at UCSF and the Allen Institute have developed a transformer-based AI model CellTransformer that maps 1,300 brain regions and subregions in the mouse brain, including previously uncharted subregions. The model was applied to large-scale spatial transcriptomics datasets, results were …
AstraZeneca Signs $555 Million AI Deal For CRISPR Therapies
AstraZeneca agreed to a collaboration worth up to $555m in regulatory and commercial milestones with San Francisco–based Algen Biotechnologies, securing exclusive rights to develop and commercialise therapies from CRISPR gene-editing technology; AstraZeneca is not taking an equity stake. The …
Human Cells Edited at Megabase Scale With Bridge Recombinases
Researchers report in Science a genome-editing approach that rearranges long stretches of human DNA—insertions, deletions, and inversions—within regions up to about one megabase (with demonstrations of ~920 kb inversions and ~130 kb deletions), with reported insertion efficiencies up to 20% …
Merck Expands Variational AI Collaboration To Up-To-$349M Deal On Two Small-Molecule Targets
Merck converted an earlier evaluation of Variational AI’s Enki platform into a collaboration to generate and optimize small-molecule candidates for two undisclosed, Merck-selected targets. The agreement includes an undisclosed upfront and milestones totaling up to $349 million; Merck receives exclusive …
Salt AI Raises $10M for Drag-and-Drop Platform to Build AI Workflows in Life Sciences
Salt AI closed a $10 million round led by Morpheus Ventures, with Struck Capital, Marbruck Investments, and CoreWeave participating. The company plans to expand deployments with biopharma and healthcare customers and scale AI engineering. The platform is a visual-first, code-capable …
T.Rx Capital Raises $77.5M to Back Early-Stage Biotech and Digital Health
T.Rx Capital closed a $77.5 million inaugural fund to back early-stage companies at the interface of technology and biology, targeting biotechnology "techbio" and tech-enabled services. The firm plans a concentrated portfolio of roughly 10-15 companies, writing $5–$10 million checks from …
BenchSci Reports New System to Extract Experimental Context From Biomedical Papers Into a Traceable Evidence Graph
BenchSci reports a method to convert biomedical papers into structured, evidence-linked data intended to support a Biological Evidence Knowledge Graph and neuro-symbolic reasoning across disease biology. The system is described as operating across domains and at throughput measured in thousands …
AI Drug Developer Insilico Medicine Readies Brain-Penetrant Therapy For Parkinson’s Trials
Insilico Medicine reports it has finished IND-enabling work for ISM8969, an oral, blood-brain-barrier-penetrant NLRP3 inhibitor and aims to file an IND in Q4 2025 to start clinical evaluation in Parkinson’s disease. In preclinical MPTP models, the candidate reportedly produced dose-dependent …
Modi Ventures Closes $88M Second Fund for AI–Biology Convergence Investments
Modi Ventures has raised $88 million for its second fund, bringing total committed capital to over $134 million. The Houston-based venture firm, launched in 2022, invests in companies and funds operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, biology, and …