The great potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for the life sciences—from basic biological research to medical applications—has so far been largely untapped. To make the future opportunities for companies more tangible here and highlight the steps needed to leverage these potentials, the life science association biosaxony organized the event “bionection meets Artificial Intelligence” at BIO CITY on May 13, 2022, on behalf of the City of Leipzig’s Economic Development Department.

Technological progress makes it possible to generate more detailed and larger data sets in the life sciences and medicine. However, generating new knowledge from these data is often an unsolved problem for scientists; data from molecular diagnostics are heterogeneous, and the medically important signals are often difficult to detect. In medical imaging, subtle subtleties are often crucial for assessment, and there is regularly a lack of structured datasets with complete medical annotation, which is necessary to train the algorithms. In addition, it must be ensured that even with new analysis methods, the privacy of patients or study participants is protected.

The event’s guest was also Minister of State Oliver Schenk, head of the Saxon State Chancellery. For him, linking the different disciplines—of information and communication technology (ICT) and life sciences—is a significant concern.

“The Free State of Saxony sees great future potential in these two fields of technology, as they are of particular importance for almost all other branches of industry. I am pleased that our funding policy for these key industries has created an innovative ecosystem here in Leipzig for the successful transfer of AI solutions from science to industry,” Schenk says.

Clemens Schülke, Head of Office at Leipzig Economic Development and the initiator of the event, also sees great opportunities here for science and business in Leipzig. “The digital transformation in medicine is driving innovative start-ups and IT companies to develop, evaluate and market new services and products for patient care in Leipzig. That is why we are strengthening the research and transfer landscape in the two worlds of medicine and information technology and creating an ecosystem for care innovations.”

To make visible the possibilities that rest in the connection of both disciplines and the already existing pieces of the puzzle, currently, ongoing collaborations between companies and scientific institutions were presented. For example, DOCYET, a leading manufacturer of digital platform solutions for care from Leipzig, Germany, is already using artificial intelligence (AI) to support health insurance companies. With Symptomcheck, an application from DOCYET’s ecosystem, it won a Europe-wide tender from AOK PLUS and has already been successfully implemented in its health app.

A little more future music can be heard from the ranks of scientists. There are currently two particularly groundbreaking future projects in Leipzig. These include the “SaxoCell” future cluster, a cooperation between the Leipzig Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, the University of Leipzig, the Technical University of Dresden, and Chemnitz Hospital. Here, artificial intelligence is to be used to develop innovative new cell and gene therapeutics. AI will help more efficient processes for their production and testing.

However, various researchers at the University of Leipzig presented the most significant innovation network at the interface between medicine and computer science. Only two weeks ago, the concept for a novel large-scale research center, the Center for Medicine Innovation (CMI), was completed here and submitted to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The main part of the research topics to be worked on here is directly linked to the topic of artificial intelligence. Since the CMI expects to create up to 9,000 additional jobs in regional companies in addition to the 1,500 scientists at the center, the economic added value of an abstract topic such as artificial intelligence can be quickly grasped.

Professor Thomas Neumuth of ICCAS and one of the idea providers and applicants in the CMI consortium explains the idea of the large-scale research center as follows: “One of the greatest societal challenges of the 21st century is to enable accessible, personalized, affordable, and equitable medicine for all. Under the motto “By the people of the region, with the people of the region, for the people of the region,” the CMI ushers in a fundamental shift in healthcare. It goes from purely curative medicine to preventive medicine, from centralized to location-independent care, and from a “one-fits-all” approach to personalized therapies. Convergence is the future of healthcare, meaning the interdisciplinary collaboration of medicine and life sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, and information technology will have a tremendous social and economic impact on all sectors of society.

Within a few hours, the 78 attendees gained an overview of the options for using artificial intelligence in medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacology. They also got an impression of the potential economic effects for the region of West Saxony.

• https://www.biosaxony.com/