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NEJM AI Grand Rounds

An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove: A Conversation with Dr. Atul Butte

Aug 23, 2023
Dr. Atul Butte, a pioneering informatician, discusses his career, from pediatric endocrinology to trailblazing work with biomedical data. Topics include his entrepreneurial journey, the importance of utilizing electronic health record data, building neural networks in AI, the connection between pediatric endocrinology and informatics, the role of a chief data scientist in understanding human disease, the power of public speaking, the impact of the Bay Dol Act on academic researchers, managing data and infrastructure, and driving AI in medicine.
01:16:51

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Prof. Atul Butte promotes the destigmatization of entrepreneurial tendencies in academia and encourages the establishment of companies based on research findings.
  • Academia should adopt a mindset similar to that of government-funded universities in India, where students are encouraged to create careers rather than just find them.

Deep dives

Using Public Gene Expression Data for Drug Implications

This paper, published in Science Translational Medicine, showcases the use of public gene expression data for discovering and validating drug implications. The researchers harnessed large amounts of disease data available on the internet and combined them with drug data to make predictions about potential drug repurposing. They then proceeded to test these predictions in animal models and even clinical trials. The approach demonstrated the power of leveraging publicly available data to identify new therapeutic possibilities and accelerate drug discovery.

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