The seminar series that brings the academic community and industry together to talk about impactful applied research.
The University of Toronto’s MScAC program is located in one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in the world.
MScAC Talks is a yearly speaker series that bridges the academic and professional worlds, highlighting impactful applied research from September to April. The series invites industry and academic leaders to share work that inspires both the university and broader professional community, sparking discussions that deepen appreciation for research and its real-world impact.
By bringing together students, alumni and industry professionals, MScAC Talks fosters meaningful connections and knowledge exchange at the intersection of research and application.
Talk title
AI at Scale: Transforming Drug Discovery and Development at Sanofi
Abstract:
In an industry where the journey from discovery to approval often takes 10–15 years and costs exceed $2.6 billion per successful medicine, Sanofi’s Digital R&D organization is reimagining what’s possible with AI. Our AI Centre of Excellence (AI CoE), located here in Toronto, is creating competitive advantages across the entire value chain — shortening timelines, lowering costs, and increasing the probability of success in ways that fundamentally shift the economics of pharmaceutical R&D.
In research, foundation models and graph knowledge bases are helping us uncover targets, optimize their profiles, and even parse out highly heterogenous diseases into correct subtypes — opening new avenues for therapeutic innovation. In development, we are building multimodal AI models that integrate imaging and digital biomarkers, reshaping how we measure patient outcomes. Also, we are building and fine-tuning clinical language models trained on health records and clinical trial data to improve our ability to predict safety and efficacy.
This end-to-end AI ecosystem is not only delivering operational efficiency, but also enabling deeper biological understanding and more personalized approaches to treatment — bringing us closer to the miracles of science for patients worldwide. In this talk, we will look at practical examples at how Sanofi’s AI CoE is achieving this, and how the early career at University of Toronto is playing a crucial contributing role in helping us chase the miracles of science.
About Brandon Rufino
Brandon Rufino leads Sanofi’s AI efforts in clinical development as Director of AI for Clinical Trial Design & Optimization. Based in Toronto, he is part of Sanofi’s global Digital R&D AI Centre of Excellence, where he has built multidisciplinary teams and scalable platforms that integrate real-world data, knowledge graphs, and advanced machine learning approaches to transform the way medicines are developed. Brandon has spearheaded initiatives ranging from AI-driven patient-finding and indication prioritization to trial optimization and burden reduction. His work bridges academic collaborations, cutting-edge research, and industrial application — helping Sanofi harness the power of AI across discovery and development to accelerate breakthrough medicines for patients worldwide.