13th January 2026
University of Bristol
Room G13/14, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ
This one‑day workshop is designed especially for early‑career researchers and academics in Computer Science and AI with limited prior experience in biology or biosciences.
Our goals are to:
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Introduce exciting opportunities to apply AI in the biosciences
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Showcase inspiring case studies and keynote talks from leading experts
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Facilitate networking across disciplines to spark new collaborations
Whether your curiosity lies in genomics, imaging, drug discovery, or systems biology, this event will help you discover how AI is reshaping life sciences research.
Registration & Posters
Please complete the registration form to secure your place. By registering, you will help the organisers plan catering, logistics, and networking activities, and ensure you receive all programme updates.
Interested in presenting a poster? You can indicate this during registration and submit your abstract to be part of the poster session.
Catering & Refreshments
Participants will be offered lunch as well as light refreshments and drinks during the event.
Travel Scholarships
A limited number of student travel scholarships are available to support attendance at the workshop. Successful applicants will be notified directly by the organisers following the review process.
We are also co-running in Bristol an optional 1-day hack-a-thon (14 Jan 2026), and an aligned “AI, Engineering Biology and Beyond 2026” 2-day conference (15-16 Jan 2026). More details, speaker line up and schedule, and registration link for both the hack-a-thon and conference can be found at the conference website: https://aiebab.github.io/.
Attendance Fees
| Attendee category | Cost |
|---|---|
| PhD Students | £10 |
| Postdocs/Academics/Industry | £30 |
Speakers
Prof Irene Papatheodorou
Earlham Institute
Prof Irene Papatheodorou is the Head of Data Science at the Earlham Institute. Irene leads a group of skilled data-led scientists, focusing on: developing software and metadata standards for openly and reproducibly sharing different types of omics data and images; decoding phenotypes using single-cell genomics. Previously, Irene led the Gene Expression team at EMBL-EBI where she developed the Single Cell Expression Atlas, EMBL-EBI’s core resource for single cell transcriptomics data.
Prof Andrew Page
Origin Sciences
Professor Andrew Page works in the field of computing sciences and bioinformatics. He is currently serving as the Chief Technical Officer at Origin Sciences where he is responsible for leading bioinformatics and genomics for cancer diagnostics. Prior to joining Origin Sciences, he served as Head of Informatics at the Quadram Institute Bioscience. Andrew has made significant contributions to open-source software, particularly in the area of microbial bioinformatics.
Dr Mark Basham
Rosalind Franklin Institute
Mark’s research focuses on removing barriers between computational methods—such as AI and data management—and the scientific domains that use them, while promoting their open development. He champions open-source tools that highlight commonalities across fields, enabling advances to be shared widely. Mark now collaborates with colleagues at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and partner universities to enhance software essential for the next generation of experimental facilities at the Rosalind Franklin Institute.
Dr Elisa Pedone
CellVoyant
Elisa is an interdisciplinary research scientist with a strong background in biotechnoly and genomic regulation. She is a Senior Research Scientist at CellVoyant, a spinout from the University of Bristol that uses AI and advanced imaging technology to solve one of the most persistent challenges in biotech: the cost, time, and complexity involved in developing cell therapies.
Dr Geraldene Munsamy
Basecamp Research
Geraldene holds a PhD in Computational / Pharmaceutical Chemistry; her earlier work includes molecular modelling, computational chemistry, and bioinformatics. She is now Senior Deep Learning Scientist at Basecamp Research, an AI-driven biotech company that aims to explore, catalogue and digitise natural biodiversity, and use AI to make sense of it.
Kieren Sharma
Artificially Ever After, University of Bristol
Kieren is a PhD student at the University of Bristol; he works on combining machine learning, data science, and computational biology to study and engineer living systems. He co-hosts the Artificially Ever After podcast, aimed at demystifying the world of artificial intelligence in accessible, non-technical language.
Anna Foix
EMBL-EBI
Anna is a PhD student at EMBL-EBI. She is passionate about developing deep-learning methods to quantify morphology in microscopy images. She previously worked on the comparison of neural network architectures for blood-cell classification.
Organiser
Prof Lucia Marucci
University of Bristol
Lucia Marucci is a Professor of Systems and Engineering Biology at University of Bristol and an EPSRC fellow. She directs the BBSRC/EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Engineering Biology, and helps with the management of the AIBIO-UK network. Her research combines control engineering, systems/synthetic biology and computational approaches to understand and re-engineer how living cells behave and make decisions.