Discngine Meetup Vol. 6

Large Language Models in Drug Discovery: From Promise to Practical Impact

October 20, 2026 - 4:00 PM (CEST) / 10:00 AM (EDT) / 11:00 PM (JST) - Online

Join us for our annual virtual community event!

 

Every year, Discngine hosts the Discngine Meetup - a virtual & dynamic interdisciplinary gathering at the intersection of computational sciences and drug discovery, covering emerging topics in the field.

This year’s theme, “Large Language Models in Drug Discovery: From Promise to Practical Impact”, focuses on assessing the real capabilities of conversational Large Language Models (LLMs) and multi-agent systems in pharmaceutical R&D.

While LLMs have gained strong momentum across the industry, with dedicated teams actively developing and experimenting with these technologies, their real-world impact on drug discovery workflows is still taking shape. Many of the benefits initially expected remain to be fully demonstrated in practice.

Through presentations and use cases shared by experts in the field, this two-hour virtual event will explore:

  • How LLMs and multi-agent systems are currently being used across the DMTA cycle,

  • Where they still face limitations and how to overcome them

  • What are the future directions for agentic AI in discovery workflows

Designed for drug discovery scientists and computational experts across the Discngine network and beyond, this event will give participants a clearer and more grounded view of the current role of LLMs in pharma R&D and their realistic potential going forward.

Speakers
Andreas Bender - Discngine Meetup 2026

Andreas Bender, Ph.D.

Professor for Machine Learning in Medicine, Khalifa University

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Christopher McClendon - Discngine Meetup 2026

Christopher McClendon, Ph.D.

Senior Principal Scientist at Pfizer

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Samuel Genheden - Discngine Meetup 2026

Samuel Genheden, Ph.D.

Director Deep Chemistry at AstraZeneca

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Agenda
Time Session
CEST EDT  
16:00 - 16:15  10:00 - 10:15

Welcome and introduction

16:15 - 16:45 10:15 - 10:45

Keynote: LLMs and Agents in Drug Discovery - Examples and Attempt at a Characterization

Speaker: Andreas Bender, Ph.D., Professor for Machine Learning in Medicine at Khalifa University

16:45 - 17:15 10:45 - 11:15

Presentation: AI Agents for Computational Chemistry

Speaker: Christopher McClendon, Ph.D., Senior Principal Scientist at Pfizer

17:15 - 17:45 11:15 - 11:45

Presentation: Towards AI collaborators in drug discovery

Speaker: Samuel Genheden, Ph.D., Director & Deep Chemistry Team Lead at AstraZeneca

17:45 - 18:00 11:45 - 12:00

Reflections and closing remarks

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16:00 - 16:45

Welcome & Plenary

John Smith, Novartis: "Peptide design 2.0"

16:45 - 17:15

Presentation 

John Smith, Bayer: "Innovation ..."

17:15 - 17:45

Presentation

David Thompson, CCG: "Technology..."

 

How was it last year?
Last year’s Meetup event featured expert presentations, a live Q&A session, and a dynamic roundtable discussion.