insitro, a machine learning-powered drug discovery and development company, today announced that Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D, has joined the company’s board of directors. Dr. Abernethy, who has dedicated her career to transforming clinical development to drive innovation for patients, brings deep expertise having held a number of leadership roles in biotech, drug policy, and as a former practicing hematologist-oncologist and palliative medicine physician.

Dr. Abernethy started her career in the biotech industry at Flatiron Health, where she served as chief medical officer, chief scientific officer, and senior vice president for oncology, and directed their research vision on utilizing real-world evidence to enable clinical research. She went on to hold the position of Principal Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and also served as the agency's acting chief information officer. In that role, Dr. Abernethy oversaw the FDA’s vision and execution on the use of data and technology in clinical development. Most recently, Dr. Abernethy served as Verily’s president of product development and chief medical officer. There, she led teams in the development and delivery of software and data products that bridge the gap between clinical research and care. Dr. Abernethy was professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and directed the Center for Learning Health Care in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Duke Cancer Care Research Program in the Duke Cancer Institute. She is an author on more than 500 scientific and medical publications.

Dr. Abernethy now plans to continue her mission of accelerating clinical evidence generation to advance groundbreaking new treatments at a new organization where she will lead initiatives to inform health policy, demonstrate new capabilities in healthcare settings, and fund programs that drive innovation in clinical research.

“Amy has a career-long track record of leading high-impact initiatives that leverage clinical data to enable research and development, and accelerate the path of bringing medicines to patients,” said Daphne Koller, Ph.D., CEO and founder of insitro. “With experience spanning tech, healthcare policy, drug development, academia, and bedside medicine, Amy will bring important insights and perspectives to our team. I look forward to partnering with her, alongside the rest of our board, as we continue our mission and take the next steps to advance our lead programs towards the clinic.”

“I strongly believe that applying artificial intelligence and technology across all phases of the drug development process will be necessary if we truly want to transform medicine and impact as many people as possible,” said Dr. Abernethy. “insitro is at the forefront of this effort, combining machine learning and data at scale to identify and advance new medicines, with important innovations already emerging from their research. I am excited to partner with this team, working alongside them to advance new medicines for patients.”

About insitro

insitro is a drug discovery and development company using machine learning (ML) and data at scale to decode biology for transformative medicines. At the core of insitro’s approach is the convergence of in-house generated multi-modal cellular data and high-content phenotypic human cohort data. These data are used to develop ML models that expand insitro’s data tensor via imputation, uncover underlying biologic state, and elucidate high-impact genetic modulators of disease. These powerful models rely on extensive biological and computational infrastructure and allow insitro to advance novel targets and patient biomarkers, design therapeutics, and inform clinical strategy. insitro is advancing a wholly owned and partnered pipeline of insights and therapeutics in neuroscience, oncology, and metabolism. Since launching in 2018, insitro has raised over $700 million from top tech, biotech, and crossover investors, and from collaborations with pharmaceutical partners. For more information on insitro, please visit www.insitro.com.

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