AI Agents to Automate Biomedical Discoveries

James Zou, PhD

Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science
CS and EE at Stanford University

NOTE: Meet & Greet Prof James Zou from 3-3:30pm听in Room 1140

WHEN: Wednesday, September 24, 2025, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
WHERE: Hybrid | 2001 黑料不打烊 College Avenue, Rm 1140;
NOTE: James Zou will be presenting virtually from Stanford University
听

Abstract

AI agents鈥攍arge language models equipped with tools and reasoning capabilities鈥攁re emerging as powerful research enablers. This talk will explore how agentic AI can facilitate research and peer review. I鈥檒l first introduce the Virtual Lab鈥攁 collaborative team of AI scientist agents conducting in silico research meetings to tackle open-ended research projects. As an example application, the Virtual Lab designed new nanobody binders to recent Covid variants that we experimentally validated. Then I will present CellVoyager, a data science agent that analyzes complex genomics data to derive new insights. Finally I will introduce Paper2Agent, a framework to automatically convert passive research papers into interactive AI agents.

Speaker Bio

James Zou is an associate professor of Biomedical Data Science, CS and EE at Stanford University. He works on developing cutting-edge AI for biomedical applications. His group developed many widely used innovations including EchoNet AI (FDA cleared for assessing cardiac function), Gradio (used by over a million developers), and SyntheMol (NY Times 2024 Good Tech). He has received the Overton Prize, Sloan Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, two Chan-Zuckerberg Investigator Awards, a Top Ten Clinical Achievement Award, best paper awards at ICML and other AI conferences, and faculty awards from Google, Amazon, Adobe and Apple. Website:.