How can artificial intelligence help get the right drugs to the right patients faster, but without losing sight of the human side of healthcare? In this episode, host Elaine Hamm, PhD, sits down with Rafael Rosengarten, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Genialis, for a thoughtful conversation about the evolution of AI in biotech and its growing role in precision oncology. Drawing on more than a decade of experience at the intersection of machine learning and life sciences, Rafael shares how Genialis is building AI-powered foundation models of cancer biology to help pharmaceutical companies improve clinical trial success and accelerate drug development. The discussion also explores the promises and challenges of AI, from data quality and bias to the broader societal implications of increasingly intelligent technologies. In this episode, you&#x27;ll discover: How AI foundation models are being used to reduce clinical trial failure in oncology. How new approaches to AI can unlock valuable insights from limited clinical datasets. The opportunities and risks of AI in healthcare, education, and society – and why human judgment remains essential. Tune in to hear what it takes to build trustworthy AI healthcare technologies and why the future of biotech still depends on human creativity and critical thinking. Links: Connect with Rafael Rosengarten, PhD, and learn about Genialis and The Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare. Connect with Elaine Hamm, PhD, and learn about Tulane Medicine Business Development and the School of Medicine. Register for the Fat Tuesday Reception at BIO 2026 and check out Elaine’s panel on Tuesday 6/23. Connect with Ian McLachlan, BIO from the BAYOU producer. Learn more about BIO from the BAYOU - the podcast. Bio from the Bayou is a podcast that explores biotech innovation, business development, and healthcare outcomes in New Orleans &amp; The Gulf South, connecting biotech companies, investors, and key opinion leaders to advance medicine, technology, and startup opportunities in the region.

Episode 140: The Growing Role of AI in Healthcare, Biotech, and Drug Development

BIO from the BAYOU: Build Your Biotech Network with Key Opinion Leaders and Investors

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** BIO from the BAYOU: Build Your Biotech Network with Key Opinion Leaders and Investors

## Transcript

In today's episode of BIO from the BAYOU, we're going to be talking about AI, the good, the bad, and the slightly nuanced. You're listening to BIO from the BAYOU, empowering biotech leaders with the tools, assets, and expertise to improve healthcare outcomes. Each episode provides insights and information to expand your network, advance your product line, and help your company thrive. Thirming the entire Gulf South, but recorded in the heart of New Orleans.

Welcome back to BIO from the BAYOU. I'm your host, Dr. Elaine Hamm, the Executive-in-Residence at Tulane School of Medicine. And today's guest is Dr. Rafael Rosengarten. He is the founder and CEO of Genialis, a precision oncology company utilizing AI to help the more promising molecules become life-saving medicines. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Elaine. It's a pleasure to be on. It's good to see you. It's been a while since I have seen you.

I think I ran into you at J.P. Morgan and insisted on carrying your suitcase across the street. Yeah, you were very, very helpful. I love someone that when they come to say hi to me, that they also help me carry my luggage too. So I have much appreciated that. Well, am I going to see you at BIO as well? Are you head of ASCO for you? Absolutely. Yeah. We've got ASCO coming up this weekend, so probably this episode will air after that. But ASCO first, then BIO, and then I get a break for the summer. Oh, nice. Where's ASCO this year? Chicago. Always Chicago.

It's always Chicago. That's right. Yeah. Well, it's so great to see you on the podcast. And I mean, we've known each other through our various organizations, including the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, which you were one of the founders of. So obviously, we're going to talk a little bit about AI, but knowing you and I will probably cover a gamut of different topics. Absolutely.

Well, let's talk a little bit about the progress of AI in healthcare. We've been involved in the space for a while, you longer than I have, but it's developed quite a bit. So let's talk first about your company and your origin story as it relates to Genialis.

I'll try to make this long story not too long for the air. My introduction to machine learning, which is a branch of artificial intelligence, goes all the way back to 2011. So there are certainly people in the world who've been doing it longer. But in healthcare, that's pretty old school. I'll go ahead and say that's old school.

I moved to Houston in 2011 from the Bay Area where I had been doing a postdoc. As any good story starts, I followed a girl to a new city and started a new postdoc at Baylor College of Medicine. And it was one of these just kind of pure academic happenstance things. My biological background, my lab science background, because I am definitely a bench scientist, has always been in sort of weird,...

Episode 140: The Growing Role of AI in Healthcare, Biotech, and Drug Development

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Episode 140: The Growing Role of AI in Healthcare, Biotech, and Drug Development

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.