3rd Industry Symposium on “AI in Life Sciences and Medicine”

From September 29 to 30, 2026, Schloss Birlinghoven in Sankt Augustin will host the third edition of the Industry Symposium “AI in Life Sciences and Medicine”. Organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI and the Institute for Digital Medicine at University Hospital Bonn, the symposium brings together researchers and industry professionals working at the intersection of life sciences, medicine, and computer science.

Among its organizers are Prof. Dr. Holger Fröhlich, Head of the Business Area Biomedical Data Intelligence and the Department Biomedical AI & Data Science at Fraunhofer SCAI, as well as a Principal Investigator in the Lamarr Institute’s research area Life Sciences & Health and Prof. Dr. Martin Hofmann-Apitius, Head of the Business Area Biomedical Data Intelligence and the Department Bioinformatics at Fraunhofer SCAI. The event serves as a unique bridge between academic research, industrial application, and interdisciplinary collaboration across life sciences, medicine, and computer science.

Initiated following the 20th anniversary of the Life Science Informatics (LSI) curriculum at the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (b-it), the symposium has developed into an annual meeting that connects academic, industrial, and translational perspectives. Its aim is to foster interdisciplinary exchange and discuss current challenges and emerging technologies in biomedical AI.

Day 1: Making Data Ready for AI

The opening day will focus on a key requirement for successful AI applications: the readiness of data. Insufficient data readiness often results in project failures, biased models, and compliance risks. As AI workflows advance, well-designed data architectures that support high-quality, consistently structured, and well-documented data are becoming increasingly important. Closely connected to the FAIR principles, data readiness can provide an essential foundation for effective AI applications.

Day 1 will examine the technical, legal, and ethical aspects of data readiness necessary for modern LLMs and real-time AI agents. Leading experts from research and industry will present practical examples of developing AI-ready infrastructures and translating data strategies into real-world applications.

Day 2: Transformative AI Applications in Biomedicine

The second day will highlight transformative research areas at the forefront of biomedical AI, bridging the gap between theoretical advancements and clinical decision-making. In the opening session on Foundation Models in Life Sciences, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bajorath, Lamarr Area Chair Life Sciences & Health, will deliver a keynote titled Foundation Models and Artificial Intelligence Agents for the Life Sciences and Medicine. His keynote will examine how foundation models are changing AI-driven drug discovery and discuss the potential of artificial intelligence agents in the life sciences and medicine.

Subsequent sessions will explore causal machine learning, digital twins, and clinical translation. Experts will demonstrate how causal reasoning extends beyond predictive correlations, how multi-scale digital twins facilitate personalized forecasting, and which steps are required to translate AI systems from research environments into clinical practice.

Together, the two-day programme spans the path from creating reliable data foundations to developing advanced AI models and translating them into biomedical and clinical practice. In doing so, it addresses questions that also shape research in the Lamarr Institute’s Life Sciences & Health area – from trustworthy and explainable machine learning to precision medicine and AI-assisted drug discovery.