Biotech Future Forum 2022: Data Science in Biotechnology

The conference brought together the three sectors of society that have the most influence on the development of biotechnology - the public, private, and academic communities - with the goal of encouraging cooperation and the exchange of knowledge and experiences.

A leadership panel and several expert thematic sessions were held as part of the conference, with participation from the most prominent experts in the field of biotechnology. Furthermore, the discussion covered bioinformatics, bioengineering, the use of data in health and biotechnology development, the promotion of public policies and scientific achievements, as well as the possibilities for their application, particularly in the fields of medicine and health.

The data collected by artificial intelligence in all branches of medicine, as well as in the pharmaceutical industry, should be primarily for the benefit of patients, because health comes first, according to the panel "Scientific data in biotechnology," where they spoke:

• Dr. Branka Rakić, senior expert associate at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence;
• Dr. Mihailo Jovanović, Director of the Office for IT and Electronic Administration;
• Ali Taha Koç, Head of the Presidency of Turkey's Office of Digital Transformation;
• Dr. Milan Petković, AI & Data Science, "Philips".

"Even though we are a new institute that has only been in operation for a year and a half, we already have collaboration with some health institutions and believe that our role is significant." We are attempting to establish a high-quality research environment, and we also want to demonstrate that we should not be afraid of artificial intelligence, as it is a technology with enormous potential, particularly in healthcare. "It is up to us to approach doctors, but also to find good collaborators and research projects to confirm the importance of the development and application of artificial intelligence in medicine, pharmacy, and other segments, rather than just doing research for the sake of research", said Dr. Branka Rakić, senior expert associate at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Serbia.

The local community was able to learn more about solutions from Israel, Germany, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Brazil, India, Austria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Australia, and other countries that are leaders in this field. International companies and conference attendees were shown the concept of the future BIO4 campus as well as the potential for investment in Serbian research and development projects.

The "Biotech Future Forum" is the first event of its kind in Serbia, organized by the Government of Serbia in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), with the goal of becoming a regular annual gathering of our country's new biotechnology community and establishing Serbia as a country of new technologies, knowledge, and innovation.