Who Gets Studied: Underrepresentation in Cancer Research

In this episode of ByteSight, host Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Dr. Irene Paassen, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Rubin Lab at the University of Bern. They explore what research looks like when only a handful of patients are diagnosed in an entire country, why only around 8% of more than 50,000 genomically profiled patients received a matched therapy, and why the field may need more than one reference genome to serve every patient.

Most health data still leaves most of the world out. In this episode, PAICON's Director of Data Strategies, Dr. John KL Wong takes us through his journey from population genetics research in Hong Kong to cancer genomics at DKFZ in Germany, and the fragmented, unharmonized datasets he kept running into at every stop. That frustration became the blueprint for PaiX Navigator, PAICON's platform that turns messy, multilingual data from 60+ countries into insight researchers can actually use. In this episode, John and Manasi dig into what makes harmonization the hardest part of the problem, why diverse data is a luxury most teams never get to have, and why there's no excuse left not to build for it.

In this episode of ByteSight, Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Dr. Vinod Gauba, physician entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of GeneVault, about the invisible patient, the person whose biology was never reflected in the data shaping their own care. Drawing on a deeply personal experience with his father’s cancer treatment, Vinod explains why representation bias runs far deeper than ethnicity alone, touching gender, age, and rare disease populations across global healthcare systems. The conversation explores why unmeasured bias is the most dangerous kind, why trust, not just data, is the real infrastructure precision medicine is missing, and what it will take to build a healthcare system that finally serves the patients it has long left out.

In this episode of ByteSight, Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Dr. Christian Tidona, CEO of BioMed X, about why so many medical breakthroughs never reach patients, and what it actually takes to fix that. From the systemic reasons biotech startups fail, to clinical trials built on homogeneous populations, to the limits of black-box AI in drug development, Christian offers a candid, experience-driven view of medicine’s most stubborn problem. The conversation also explores BioMed X’s landmark Barbados project: a government partnership using AI and deep phenotyping to address diabetic kidney disease in a population of African descent long excluded from mainstream research. A grounded, forward-looking conversation on what it truly takes to close the translational gap in medicine.

In this episode of ByteSight, Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Faizan S. Mohammad, founder and CEO of Leg&airy, about the overlooked reality of rare diseases and what it will take to change it. Drawing on personal experience navigating the healthcare system for his son, Faizan challenges the very label "rare" when an estimated 300 million people globally live with these conditions, is the problem really scarcity, or is it a failure of translation, data, and economic incentive? Together, they explore why the technology exists but the pathway to treatment doesn't, why AI alone won't solve what incomplete data created, and what a future built on individual biochemical fingerprints could look like.

In this episode of ByteSight, Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Dr. Grant Coren, Managing Director of PharmaSearch Limited, about the evolving role of AI in life sciences. Together, they explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping drug discovery, clinical trials, and leadership in pharma, while confronting critical questions around data diversity, inclusion, and human expertise. From the promise of personalized medicine to the risks of unequal representation, this conversation highlights why the future of AI in healthcare depends not only on technology, but on the data and values behind it.Learn more about Dr. Grant Coren

In this ByteSight episode, Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Dr. Paul Agapow about why AI in biomedicine often gets the „right answer for the wrong reason.” Using the famous „wolf-husky problem,” they explore hidden correlations in medical data, why context matters as much as performance, and what it takes to move AI from pilot to real clinical impact. The conversation also dives into clinical trials as the „eye of the needle” for drug development, the cultural barriers to adoption, and why trust and explainability are essential for AI that truly helps patients.

In this episode of ByteSight, Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Simeón Baker, Executive Director of External Affairs at Genomics England, to explore what really happens when policy meets DNA. From newborn genome sequencing to national pharmacogenomics initiatives, the conversation goes far beyond science into ethics, governance, public trust, and the realities of building genomic programs at scale. A compelling discussion on the future of genomics, the responsibilities that come with national-scale data, and how countries can move from ambition to meaningful, trusted impact.Learn more about Simeón Baker⁠

Most AI models perform beautifully in the lab but fail when faced with real-world complexity.In this episode of ByteSight, host Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Dr. Heather Couture, Founder of Pixel Scientia Labs and host of the Impact AI podcast. Together, we explore why AI in digital pathology often fails to generalizeacross scanners, stains, and patient populations and what it really takes to build systems that are robust, explainable, and clinically meaningful.With over two decades of experience bridging AI research and healthcare practice, Heather shares practical insights on dataset diversity, model validation, and the human factors that shape trustworthy AI.Learn more about Dr.  Heather Couture.

In this episode of #ByteSight, our host Dr. Manasi A-Ratnaparkhe speaks with Dr. Catalina Lopez-Correa, Chief Global Strategy Officer at Genome Canada. Dr. CatalinaLopez-Correa is a globally recognized physician-scientist whose career spans pandemic preparedness, cancer research, and international health diplomacy. Together, we explore what it means to bring genomics „out of the lab and into the living room“ from pandemic preparedness to cancer care, while tackling the real-world consequences of inequity in genomic databases. Learn more about Dr.  Catalina Lopez-Correa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clopezcorrea/