Biogen Idec’s Martin Leach Speaks to “Creation & Assembly of Data Science Groups for Pharma”

NEEDHAM, Mass. - Jan. 6, 2015 - PRLog -- Biogen Idec established an enterprise-wide Data Sciences capability in July of 2013 to enable innovative data-driven approaches at the intersection of science, medicine and economics. Dr. Leach will discuss lessons learned in organizational structure and governance towards this goal at Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 7^th Annual Integrating R&D Informatics & Knowledge Management conference on Tuesday, February 17 from 10:45-11:15 am. Biogen Idec’s efforts to build out an inventory of inter-related cross-domain data assets across the company to permit data exploration and analysis will be explained.

In addition, he will moderate a panel discussion on the creation and assembly of data science groups for Pharma on Tuesday at 11:45 am – 12:15 pm. He will be joined by three panelists: Susie Stephens, Senior Director, Oncology & West Coast IT, Pfizer; Juergen Hammer, Ph.D., MBA, Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development; Center Head, Informatics/IT; Global Head, Data Science, Roche Innovation Center New York; and Jake Klamka, Founder, Insight Data Science Fellows Program.

About Dr. Leach:
Martin Leach, Ph.D., is currently Vice President, Research & Development IT at Biogen Idec. Dr. Leach’s position includes support of IT for basic research/discovery through and including support of clinical trials, safety, regulatory and global medical affairs. He is responsible for building out a new data sciences group that will initially support the needs of research but will expand over time to leverage these capabilities to support all areas across the enterprise. Working jointly with the SVP of Translational Research, Martin will have dotted line responsibility for computational biology.

“We are pleased that Dr. Leach will be joining the speaking faculty at our R&D Informatics event,” said Edel O’Regan, Ph.D., Vice President of Conference Production, Cambridge Healthtech Institute. “Dr. Leach’s presentation and panel discussion are exciting additions to the program as they explore the field of data science as its impact and importance is expanding in the pharma and biotech industry.”

For complete event details, visit http://www.triconference.com/integrated-pharma-informatics.

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CHI’s 22nd International Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference is the industry's Preeminent Event on Molecular Medicine, focusing on Drug Discovery, Genomics, Diagnostics and Information Technology. Spanning six days this year, the Tri-Conference includes an expanded program that includes 6 symposia, over 20 short courses, and 17 conference programs that will be attended by over 3,000 attendees from more than 40 countries. For over 20 years, Tri-Conference attendees gained insight and knowledge by attending the event, knowledge that they were able to take with them, and have an immediate impact on their research towards shaping the future of medicine.

About Cambridge Healthtech Institute (http://www.chicorporate.com)

Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI), founded in 1992, is the industry leader in providing superior-quality scientific information to eminent researchers and business experts from top pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic organizations. Delivering an assortment of resources such as events, reports, publications and eNewsletters, CHI's portfolio of products include Cambridge Healthtech Institute Conferences, Barnett Educational Services, Insight Pharma Reports, Cambridge Marketing Consultants, Cambridge Meeting Planners, Cambridge Healthtech Media Group, The Knowledge Foundation, and OpenHelix.