Summary
In this episode of Driving the Business of Science, Keith Parent, CEO of Court Square Group, talks with Catherine Lunardi, CEO of GENAIZ, about the challenges and opportunities of implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in life science companies. Catherine explains her company’s Intelligent Automation solutions, particularly their data orchestration platform. They discuss their partnership, which began at an economic development forum in Massachusetts. Catherine shares her background in pharmaceuticals and the inspiration behind GENAIZ, emphasizing the importance of AI in streamlining data management. They highlight successful projects involving a cross-referencing tool for large document volumes and introduce GENAIZ’s semantic search engine for literature reviews.
GENAIZ offers a powerful Data Orchestration platform purpose-built for the life sciences industry. We empower Pharmaceutical Sponsors, CDMO’s, CROs, Hospitals, Clinical Trials, and Academic Labs to make their data “talk” fast using advanced, Intelligent Automation solutions. Our Intelligent Automated solutions break down silos across Regulatory, Quality, Laboratory, and R&D functions—streamlining processes, enhancing compliance, and accelerating decision-making.
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Key Takeaways
Introduction and Background of Court Square
- Keith Parent introduces himself and the podcast, “Driving the Business of Science.”
- Keith provides a brief background on Court Square Group, a managed service firm for life science companies.
- Court Square has been in the industry for over 30 years, focusing on helping companies get their science to market.
- Keith mentions their systems: RegDocs365™, a content repository for clinical and regulatory content, and Life Science LaunchPad, which uses the RegDocs365 platform in their Audit Ready Compliant Cloud (ARCC).
Introduction of Catherine Lunardi and GENAIZ
- Keith introduces Catherine Lunardi, CEO and founder of GENAIZ, an intelligent automation solutions provider for life science companies.
- Catherine explains that GENAIZ aims to accelerate the pace of bringing science to market through AI-powered solutions.
- GENAIZ offers a fully compliant, ready platform based on stringent regulations in the industry.
- Catherine highlights their data orchestration platform, which connects different systems and repositories to make data talk quickly.
Keith’s Initial Impressions and Partnership with GENAIZ
- Keith shares his initial impressions of Catherine and GENAIZ, met at an economic development forum in Massachusetts.
- Keith mentions visiting GENAIZ ‘s offices in Montreal and being impressed with their early AI work.
- Keith discusses the partnership between Court Square and GENAIZ, emphasizing the importance of having good partner companies.
- Keith asks Catherine about her inspiration for starting GENAIZ and the problems she aimed to solve.
Catherine’s Journey and Inspiration for GENAIZ
- Catherine shares her background in the pharmaceutical industry and the challenges of getting data into systems.
- She describes the tedious process of cleaning up and harmonizing data, often taking up to 12 months.
- Catherine explains her decision to build a team and work on concrete AI applications to reduce the burden on people.
- She mentions the influence of Yoshua Bengio, a famous AI person in Montreal, and the early excitement about AI technology.
Support for AI in Life Sciences in Montreal
- Keith and Catherine discuss the support for AI in life sciences in Montreal, including programs from the Government of Canada and Investment Quebec.
- Catherine mentions the Scale AI organization, which supports businesses integrating AI in their operations.
- They talk about a major project with a company called Cel Carta, deploying AI technologies to support the lab of the future.
- The project aims to make the company more efficient in managing data and deriving insights for customers.
Challenges and Solutions in AI Implementation
- Keith emphasizes the importance of working with AI companies that are easy to work with and have a fantastic team.
- Keith discusses the challenges of AI implementation, including the bewilderment of many people about AI’s capabilities.
- Keith shares a specific problem with a client who needed a tool to cross-reference large volumes of documents.
- Catherine explains the development of the Rough AI tool, which processes 50,000 words per minute, and its success in identifying documents with high accuracy.
Development of Rough AI and Its Applications
- Keith and Catherine discuss the development of the Rough AI tool and its ability to process large volumes of documents.
- Catherine explains the challenges of dealing with different formats and the importance of not generating too many false positives.
- They discuss the success of the tool in identifying documents and its ability to handle complex cases with high accuracy.
- Keith highlights the importance of subject matter expertise in developing AI solutions and the flexibility of the Rough AI tool for different use cases.
Literature Review and Semantic Search Engine
- Keith asks Catherine about GENAIZ’s literature review process and semantic search engine.
- Catherine explains the powerful semantic search engine that exploits internal and external sources of data.
- The literature review tool allows companies to search for specific terms and combine search results, summarize them, and share them with colleagues.
- The tool is used in pharmacovigilance initiatives and other regulatory functions, providing a comprehensive literature review platform.
Expansion of AI Solutions and Marketplace
- Catherine discusses the expansion of GENAIZ’s AI solutions and the development of a marketplace with various point solutions.
- She mentions the use of the literature review tool in their Kappa generation intelligence solution for root cause analysis.
- The modular approach allows GENAIZ to quickly build new intelligent solutions for different use cases.
- Catherine highlights the importance of long-term relationships and collaboration with partners to advance products and ensure market fit.
Future Plans and Closing Remarks
- Catherine shares GENAIZ ‘s future plans, including the announcement of the Cel Carta project and the launch of multiple new products.
- She mentions upcoming products in areas like risk relief, conformity checks, file submission support, and validation.
- Keith and Catherine discuss the importance of compliance and security in AI solutions, ensuring data stays within the firewall.
- Keith thanks Catherine for the discussion and highlights the importance of technology in driving the business of science.