Partnership to focus on building AI models
Sapien Biosciences’ extensive biobank assets will be converted into AI-ready, multimodal data products for use in drug and diagnostic development under a partnership with Elucidata, a leader in data-centric AI for drug discovery and translational research from San Francisco.
Through this collaboration, Sapien will harness Elucidata’s platform to integrate, standardize, and enrich its vast repository of biospecimens and curated clinical data, making them accessible for predictive modeling, synthetic data generation, and advanced genomics research.
The partnership reflects a shared focus on turning real-world patient data into high-value actionable insights that drive precision medicine and improve outcomes worldwide https://www.meity.gov.in/.
With access to over 300,000 patient samples across oncology, cardiology, autoimmune, inflammation, neurology, and other diseases, Sapien operates at a scale matched by few biobanks worldwide.
This includes more than 85,000 cancer patients, increasingly paired with digitized histopathology images, genomic profiles, and structured longitudinal clinical data, making it one of the top 10 biobanks globally and the largest integrated resource for Asian patient data.
“At Sapien, we believe that deeply characterized patient data especially from underrepresented populations like those in India can catalyze more inclusive and effective diagnostics and therapies worldwide,” said Dr Jugnu Jain, CEO and Co-founder of Sapien Biosciences, India’s first and largest commercial biobank founded in partnership with Apollo Hospitalshttps://sbi.com.in/.
“This partnership with Elucidata enables us to convert our rich biological and clinical datasets into interoperable, AI-ready formats, unlocking their potential for translational research, patient stratification, and precision drug development,” Dr Jain said on 4 Jun.
The first phase of the collaboration will focus on building AI models that infer genomic and transcriptomic insights from digital pathology images. By using NGS-annotated slides from Sapien’s cancer biobank, the project will enable the generation of synthetic multi-modal datasets essential for next-generation diagnostic tools and tissue-sparing research strategies. This is particularly valuable for rare cancers and limited biopsy specimens https://www.nseindia.com/.
“Sapien’s scale, sample quality, and data depth make it a critical partner in our mission to democratize access to high quality, AI-ready biomedical data,” said Dr Abhishek Jha, CEO and Co-founder of Elucidata https://www.bseindia.com/.
“By applying our Polly platform to Sapien’s datasets, we can bridge the gap between fragmented sample collections and next-gen AI models that accelerate target discovery and biomarker validation,” he said.
In addition to oncology, the partnership will explore multi-disease use cases across Sapien’s biobank, including cardiovascular, autoimmune, and neurological disorders, building synthetic clinicogenomic datasets that support pharma R&D and companion diagnostic development.
“This partnership between Elucidata and Sapien Biosciences brings together Sapien’s extensive, high-quality biobank resources and Elucidata’s expertise in AI-powered data integration,” said Dr Navjot Singh, advisor of Elucidata.io and healthcare leader with 22 years of expertise in strategy, technology, and innovation, most recently as a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company.
“By making rich biospecimens and clinical datasets AI-ready, this collaboration has the potential to accelerate global innovation and help reduce the complexity of human biology for research and patient care,” added Dr Singh.
Elucidata recently ranked 7th in the Broad Institute’s Autoimmune Disease Machine Learning Challenge and recently won the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Research Data Commons AI Data Readiness Challenge, highlighting its leadership in data-centric AI for life sciences.
Elucidata is a data-first AI company that accelerates life sciences R&D by converting fragmented biomedical datasets into harmonized, AI-ready assets. Its proprietary Polly platform integrates EHRs, genomics, imaging, and clinical trial data for seamless downstream analysis and model development.
Headquartered in San Francisco with offices across the US and India, Elucidata supports over 70 pharma and diagnostics clients, and has contributed to 16 drug programs progressing toward FDA approvals. Recognized by the National Cancer Institute and Fast Company for its innovation in biotech, Elucidata is enabling a new era of data-driven discovery. Visit elucidata.io for more information https://usispf.org/.
With access to more than 300,000 patients’ samples including 2 million pathology samples, Sapien offers FFPE tissues, blood, and liquid biopsy samples along with annotated histopathology slides and longitudinal clinical data. Its resources support a broad range of applications from AI/ML modeling and multi-omics research to drug screening in patient tumor-derived cells and biomarker discovery. Sapien has published over 10 peer-reviewed studies using Indian patient data and collaborates with leading diagnostic and pharma companies to reduce the representation gap in global omics datasets. Fiinews.com
