Panelists:
Jon Stokes, PhD
Co-founder and CSO of Stoked Bio
Assistant Professor at McMaster University
Panelist
Jon Stokes, PhD
Jon Stokes, PhD, is the co-founder and CSO of Stoked Bio and assistant professor at McMaster University, focusing on AI-driven drug discovery for challenging infectious diseases and cancers. In his academic role, he develops and applies artificial intelligence methods to discover novel antibiotics and advances computational approaches to understand bacterial cell physiology in complex infection settings. He has extensive experience in machine learning applications for antibiotic discovery and has contributed to breakthrough research in antimicrobial resistance solutions. Stokes completed his PhD and postdoctoral training in microbiology, chemical biology, and artificial intelligence. He is recognized for his pioneering work in leveraging AI for drug discovery, particularly in developing next-generation antibiotics with expanded capabilities over current state-of-the-art treatments.
Jeff Skinner, MBA
CEO of Stoked Bio
Panelist
Jeff Skinner, MBA
Jeff Skinner is CEO of Stoked Bio, where he leads business development, licensing, and strategic partnerships to advance next-generation therapeutics. He has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, spanning early discoveries through clinical and commercial development. Over his career, he has successfully completed global licensing agreements, managed research collaborations, and built partnerships that have accelerated drug development pipelines.
Previously, Skinner was vice president of business development at Valeo Pharma, where he expanded a portfolio of branded therapeutics in respiratory, ophthalmology, and hospital products. He also held senior business development roles at Stemtrix and advised pharmaceutical companies including Antis Pharma and Ortho RTi on growth strategy, licensing, and deal execution.
Skinner earned a BSc in genetics and an MBA from Western University. He is recognized for his ability to identify and secure strategic alliances, negotiate complex licensing deals, and guide emerging biopharma companies through critical stages of growth and commercialization.
- Time:
Antimicrobial resistance and brain cancer represent two of the most intractable challenges in medicine today, with resistance mechanisms and tumor evolution constantly undermining existing therapies. Stoked Bio aims to discover medicines for these and other hard-to-treat diseases by using a “biology-first” approach to AI-driven drug discovery. The company’s Mosaic platform, a biology-first, AI-assisted solution, integrates phenotypic screening, proprietary training datasets, and generative AI models to streamline the identification of drugs that selectively kill pathogens and cancer cells. The platform represents a distinctive approach for accelerating drug discovery while cutting costs and reducing attrition rates in early development.
In this GEN webinar, Jon Stokes, PhD, and Jeff Skinner, discuss how Stoked Bio’s platform advances the discovery of new antimicrobials and glioblastoma therapies by combining biological insights with cutting-edge computational models. Key takeaways from the webinar include:
- How a biology-first approach to AI drug discovery accelerates the identification of novel compounds for hard-to-treat conditions including drug-resistant infections and glioblastoma.
- How Stoked Bio leverages CDD Vault to translate academic discoveries into a scalable biotech model.
- How Stoked Bio’s Mosaic platform integrates phenotypic screening, proprietary datasets, and generative AI to reduce costs and failures in early drug development.
- How academic-industry collaborations and robust data management streamline efforts to translate lab discoveries to clinically relevant therapeutics.
A live Q&A session will follow the presentations, offering you a chance to pose questions to our expert panelists.
Produced with support from:
The post Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance and Glioblastoma with Biology-First AI Models appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
