1) 25/6/2026

WHO: Ziv Bar-Joseph, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)

WHEN: Thursday, June 25th, 2026 at 12:00

WHERE: BUILDING 503 (Computer Science), AUDITORIUM

TITLE: Deep Learning and Foundation Models for Biology

 

ABSTRACT: Deep learning and foundation models have been used across several computational domains including text, images, audio and more. While some of the most successful examples of foundation models are in the biological domain, their use has been constrained by the availability of data, the different languages used in biology (DNA, RNA, proteins and more) and the appropriateness of model architectures for specific biological problems. In this talk I will discuss work using deep learning to study human tissues at high resolution leading to novel insights about the organization of molecules and cells. I will also present work that utilizes AI foundation models to improve the design of vaccines. Finally, I will discuss how different foundation models can be integrated to improve the ability to predict how cells respond to drugs.

BIO: Ziv Bar-Joseph, PhD was the FORE Systems Professor of Machine Learning and Computational Biology in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He is the Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of GenBio AI. Dr. Bar-Joseph received his PhD in computer science from MIT in 2003. His work focuses on the analysis, modeling and integration of high throughput biological data with a specific emphasis on dynamic models. He is also developing foundation models for simulating biological data across scales. Dr. Bar-Joseph is the recipient of the Overton prize, the annual award of the Intentional Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) and the NSF CAREER award. He is also the recipient of several best papers awards including at top computational biology conferences, Recomb and ISMB.