Generative AI and the Future of Research Speaker Series: James Zou

James Zou is an associate professor of Biomedical Data Science, CS and EE at Stanford University. He works on advancing the foundations of ML and in-depth scientific and clinical applications. Many of his innovations are widely used in tech and biotech industries.  He has received a Sloan Fellowship, an NSF CAREER Award, two Chan-Zuckerberg Investigator Awards, a Top Ten Clinical Achievement Award, several best paper awards, and faculty awards from Google, Amazon, and Adobe. His research has also been profiled in popular press including the NY Times, WSJ, and WIRED.

Abstract:
This talk will explore how generative AI agents can enable scientific discoveries. First, I’ll introduce the Virtual Lab—a collaborative team of AI scientist agents conducting in silico research meetings to tackle open-ended R&D projects. The Virtual Lab designed new nanobody binders to recent Covid variants that we experimentally validated. Then I will discuss how generative AI can expand researchers' creativity by designing and experimentally validating new small-molecule drugs. I will conclude by discussing some interesting open problems and opportunities in designing and optimizing multi-agent interactions. 

About the speaker series:
The CIRSS Speaker Series continues in Spring with a new theme of “Generative A and the Future of Research." Our speakers will share their research on the opportunities and risks associated with the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI usage in scholarship.

We meet most Wednesdays, 9am-10am Central time, in Zoom. Everyone is welcome to attend. More information, including upcoming speaker schedule and links to recordings, is available on the series website. For weekly updates on upcoming talks, subscribe to our CIRSS Seminars mailing list. Our Spring series is led by Yuanxi Fu and Timothy McPhillips, and supported by the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS) and the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.