BCLA's 11th Annual Biotech Summit: Charting the Future of Work, Talent and Technology

On November 8th, 2025, BCLA’s 11th Annual Biotech Summit, Biotech 2030: Charting the Future of Work, Talent, and Technology, brought together an energizing community of scientists, founders, policy leaders, and students at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. From morning coffee networking to the closing hour, the summit showcased the optimism and momentum powering Southern California’s growing biotech ecosystem.

The summit opened with a keynote from Dino Di Carlo, Ph,D., who shared the 15-year journey that transformed his UCLA microfluidics research into IntelliSep, an FDA-cleared sepsis diagnostic now used across hospitals in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. He highlighted powerful clinical stories from Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge, where IntelliSep has helped distinguish sepsis from look-alike conditions, saving lives in real time. Dr. Di Carlo explained the science behind the technology, including deformability cytometry and high-speed microfluidic imaging, and reflected on the engineering and regulatory challenges of bringing a first-in-class diagnostic to patients. He emphasized the need for massive, high-quality biological datasets to power future AI models and noted that the next era of biotech will depend on creating tools that generate new information at scale. He closed by reminding the audience that breakthroughs come from long-term collaboration, persistence, and intentional “engineered serendipity”, the environments that allow unexpected discoveries to emerge.

Following the keynote, the summit moved into a focused session on precision medicine, rare diseases, and platform regulation led by Daniel Benjamin, Ph.D., who introduced his dual role at UCLA Anderson and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and defined precision healthcare as stratifying patients, predicting risk, and aligning treatments with both genetic information and real-world behavioral factors such as adherence and needle phobia. He was joined by Ilana Solomon, MS, Deputy Director of the Center for Precision Medicine at City of Hope, who described precision oncology as a proactive approach that identifies individuals at increased risk and uses multi-cancer early detection tools before symptoms emerge. Chris Bostic, Ph.D., Partner at Orchard Capital Ventures, expanded on this by contrasting traditional broad “sledgehammer” therapies with today’s mechanism-based treatments informed by variant-level insights, better modeling, and improved data diversity. Together, the speakers outlined major barriers to scaling precision healthcare, including misaligned incentives across patients, clinicians, and payers; reimbursement timelines requiring long-term evidence; limited genomic training for providers; heavy clinical workloads; and a historical lack of diversity in clinical trial data. Solomon emphasized the need for efficient provider education and practical support for ordering and interpreting genetic tests, while Bostic highlighted that successful innovations must benefit all three key stakeholders, the “three Ps”: patients, physicians, and payers. Overall, the session emphasized that the future of precision healthcare depends as much on education, reimbursement, and system design as it does on technological advancements.

After a short break, Rene Hubert, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Amgen, led the session on Preparing the Next Generation of Scientists. Hubert emphasized early-career development, mentorship structures, and the importance of visibility and belonging for students transitioning to industry. He highlighted how companies like Amgen are intentionally redesigning training pathways to meet the workforce demands of 2030.

Before the afternoon panels began, attendees gathered for a networking lunch, where conversations from the morning sessions continued over coffee and warm meals. Students approached speakers with follow-up questions, early-career scientists connected with peers from neighboring institutions, and founders exchanged ideas with ecosystem leaders seated nearby. The lunch break offered a relaxed, collaborative atmosphere that bridged the morning’s scientific discussions with the afternoon’s ecosystem-focused programming — a moment that reminded everyone how much of biotech innovation begins not on stage, but in casual conversation.

The afternoon continued with the LA Ecosystem Panel, moderated by Steve Gillison, MBA, COO of the Alliance for SoCal Innovation, who framed the conversation around what the region’s innovation landscape means for students, early-career scientists, and future founders. He was joined by Dan Gober, Executive Director at BioCom California; Leila Lee, MPP, Assistant Director at the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity; Stephanie Hsieh, JD, MBA, CEO of BioscienceLA; and Howard Xu, Ph.D., Director of Incubator Programs at LA BioSpace at Cal State LA. Gober shared economic data showing that LA County generates $60 billion in life science output and supports nearly 200,000 jobs, underscoring the importance of retaining innovation within the region. Lee detailed the county’s intentional investment strategy, highlighting nearly $20–24 million awarded through the California Jobs First Initiative and an additional $10 million in county funding to expand life science infrastructure and workforce development. Hsieh emphasized LA’s geographic scale, describing the region as “88 Cambridges”, a vast constellation of innovation hubs that must be better connected to unlock their full potential. Xu spoke about the critical role of inclusive infrastructure, sharing how early county support allowed Cal State LA to secure a major federal EDA grant to build a wet-lab incubator serving regional startups. Together, the panelists conveyed a unified message: Los Angeles is no longer an “emerging” life science market; it is a rapidly maturing ecosystem with immense potential, and strengthening regional connectivity will be essential to scaling its biotech future.

The program continued with Investing in Health: Where Biology, Policy, and Innovation Meet, featuring Kevin Wong, Chief Financial Officer at the Lundquist Institute. Wong emphasized the need to align payer, provider, and patient incentives so that scientific discoveries can translate into real clinical adoption.

The final session, AI and Automation in Drug Discovery, moderated by Joseph Alzagatiti, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of EndoFold, brought together four leaders advancing computational drug discovery: Weian Zhao, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Aureka Biotechnologies; Edward Williams, Machine Learning Engineer at Terray Therapeutics; and Christopher Korban, Co-Founder and CEO of Revilico Inc. Drawing directly from the discussion, Zhao emphasized that even noisy biological datasets can yield strong signals when models are trained with the right structure; Williams noted that AI must reflect the intrinsic limits of assays to avoid overconfident predictions; and Korban highlighted that as information retrieval becomes commoditized, computational intuition, knowing when a model is giving something meaningful versus misleading, will become essential. The panelists also stressed that automation’s true value is consistency, not speed, and that interdisciplinary teams of chemists, biologists, engineers, and ML scientists will define the next decade of discovery. Their closing advice to students was clear: embrace AI, stay curious, ask why models behave the way they do, question outputs with healthy skepticism, and grow your computational reasoning, because future breakthroughs will come from those who can navigate both biology and AI with confidence.

As the summit transitioned into the networking hour, the atmosphere remained electric. Attendees gathered around speakers to continue conversations sparked during the sessions, founders exchanged insights with investors, and researchers discovered new avenues for collaboration. Representatives from regional partners connected with students and early-stage entrepreneurs, offering guidance, resources, and opportunities that reflect the depth and generosity of Los Angeles’ rapidly maturing life science ecosystem. The exchange felt organic, optimistic, and emblematic of LA’s momentum as a rising global hub for biotech innovation.

This year’s summit was made possible through the dedicated support of our event sponsors, Magnify at CNSI, the USC Michelson Center Bridge Institute, KGI, LA BioSpace, Teknova, and Amgen, who continue to elevate and strengthen the biotech community across Los Angeles through sustained partnership and investment. We are equally grateful to our event sponsors, Mann Integrated Core Services for Drug Discovery and Development, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Corning Life Sciences, and Premier Analytical Sciences, whose contributions helped bring this year’s summit to life and expand its impact for students, scientists, founders, and innovators. We are super grateful to our core sponsors, Magnify at CNSI, the USC Michelson Center Bridge Institute, KGI, LA BioSpace, Teknova, and Amgen, who continue to elevate and strengthen the biotech community across Los Angeles through sustained partnership and investment. Together, their support fuels the next generation of biotech leaders and reinforces the collaborative spirit that defines the Southern California ecosystem.