Artificial Intelligence
Team VPE
Next Generation Virtual Patient Engine for Clinical Translation of Drug Candidates
The goal of team VPE is to develop a versatile computational platform that can predict the efficacy of first- or best-in-class drug candidates in virtual patient populations at an unprecedented accuracy, thereby addressing one of the most critical bottlenecks of the pharmaceutical industry today: a 90% failure rate of new drug candidates during clinical development. In partnership with Sanofi, the VPE team will develop innovative artificial intelligence methods to build the virtual patient platform. As a proof-of-concept, the initial platform will focus on chronic immune-mediated diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), where new medication that can address patient heterogeneity is needed.
Mentors
- Dr. Tommaso Andreani (Industry Mentor)
Sr. Principal Data Scientist – Disease Modeling Innovation Lead, Sanofi - Dr. Jan Korbel (Academic Mentor)
Head of Data Science, European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Publications
- Gurdeep Singh, Lilija Wehling, Ahmad Wisnu Mulyadi, Rakesh Hadne Sreenath, Douglas McCloskey (BioMed X Institute), Thomas Klabunde, Tommaso Andreani (Sanofi) (2025)
TALK2BIOMODELS AND TALK2KNOWLEDGEGRAPHS: AI AGENT-BASED APPLICATION FOR PREDICTION OF PATIENT BIOMARKERS AND REASONING OVER BIOMEDICAL KNOWLEDGE GRAPHS
MLGenX 2025, ICLR Conference Workshop Paper
Team Location BioMed X Institute Heidelberg
The research of this team is kindly supported by Sanofi.
Our Team Members
Dr. Gurdeep Singh
Group Leader
Short Bio
- 2021 – 2023: PostDoc, Russell lab, Heidelberg University, Germany
- 2017 – 2021: PhD, Russell lab, Heidelberg University, Germany
- 2015 – 2017: Research Assistant, Heidelberg University, Germany
- 2014 – 2015: Bachelor’s thesis at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium &Heidelberg University, Germany
- 2010 – 2015: Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronics), BITS Pilani, India
Dr. Lilija Wehling
Computational Biologist
Short Bio
- 2021 – 2022: Postdoctoral researcher at the Molecular Hepatopathology Laboratory, Heidelberg University Hospital
- 2017 – 2021: PhD Student in Systems Biology at BioQuant (Heidelberg University) and the Pathology Institute of the Heidelberg University Hospital
- 2013 – 2016: Master of Science in Systems Biology, Heidelberg University
Dr. Ahmad Wisnu Mulyadi
Algorithm Researcher
Short Bio
- 2018 – 2024: PhD in the Dept. of Brain & Cognitive Engineering, Korea University, South Korea
- 2015 – 2016: Master of Engineering in the Dept. of Interdisciplinary Program of Information Systems, Pukyong National University, South Korea
- 2013 – 2016: Master of Science in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia
Sanjana Balaji Kuttae
Computational Biologist, Research Assistant
Rakesh Hadne Sreenath
Intern
Short Bio
- 2023 – Present: Master of Science in Applied Data Science and Analytics, SRH University, Germany
- 2022 – 2023: Post-Degree Diploma in Data Science, Purdue University, USA
- 2021 – 2023: Software Engineer, Tech Mahindra, India
- 2016 – 2020: Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication Engineering, UBDT Collage of Engineering, India
Ansh Kumar
Master's Student
Short Bio
- April 2024 – present: Master of Science in Applied Data Science and Analytics, SRH University, Heidelberg, Germany
- January 2023 – February 2023: NLP & Automation Intern, R. Chandra & Associates, Lucknow, India
- November 2022 – November 2022: Data Analyst Intern, Honeywell, Roorkee, India
- July 2022 – September 2022: Database Intern, CSIR – Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, India
- 2019 – 2023: Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering, Quantum University, Roorkee, India