SAPA Data Science Community
2026 April Webinar
From Multimodal Molecular Learning to AI-Guided Therapeutic Design
HIGHLIGHTS
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming how we understand molecules, predict their biological activities, and design new therapeutics. In this talk, Professor Hu will present a series of recent works from our lab on multimodal molecular learning, biological interaction prediction, and generative design. These studies explore how modern AI methods can enhance molecular representation, uncover biologically meaningful interactions, and support the design of new therapeutic candidates. Together, they reflect his lab’s broader vision of AI-enabled drug discovery through intelligent systems that bridge molecular understanding, biological reasoning, and therapeutic design.
SPEAKER
Pingzhao Hu
Canada Research Chair in Computational Approaches to Health Research (Tier 2)
Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry
Department of Computer Science
Dept. of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Department of Oncology
Western University
Dr. Pingzhao Hu is a tenured Associate Professor at Western University, with appointments in Biochemistry, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, and Computer Science, and is also an Associate Professor (Status-Only) of Biostatistics at the University of Toronto. He holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Computational Approaches to Health Research. His research develops AI and statistical methods for analyzing multimodal health data, including omics, medical imaging, and electronic health records, to advance precision medicine. Dr. Hu has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals (e.g. Nature Communications) and top AI conferences (NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR), secured over $18 million in research funding, and serves as an Academic Editor for PLOS Computational Biology. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from York University, Canada.
ABOUT US
Data science and AI are hot trending topics in many industry. The aim of SAPA Data Science community is to bring together researchers, young professionals, educators, and experts into one place, provide learning and collaboration platform for data science related topics, and drive the personal growth and career development of members.
Join us on the 2nd Tuesday of every other month from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM for complimentary educational seminars and discussions on practical data science applications. Stay tuned for upcoming topics and activities!
