Meet the 2025 Benchtalk Boston Changemakers

At Benchtalk Boston 2025, almost a thousand scientists and R&D leaders came together to share ideas and shape the future of how science gets done. The Changemaker Awards honor individuals and teams who go above and beyond, using Benchling to accelerate discovery, further collaboration, and push the boundaries of what’s possible in R&D.

This year’s awardees span gene editing, oncology, cell therapy, and more. Here are the inspiring stories of our Boston 2025 Changemakers, and how their work is shaping biotech’s future.

LifeEdit Therapeutics is built on the belief that the next era of medicine will come from more precise, more flexible gene editing tools. This mission is powered by a uniquely diverse set of RNA-guided nucleases and base editors which requires clear, structured data and a shared understanding of how to bring molecular designs to life.

That’s where Hannah Wiedner has made an extraordinary impact. As LifeEdit’s internal Benchling lead, Hannah has become the connective tissue between the company’s scientific vision and the workflows that enable it. She launched BenchPress, an internal user group where scientists gather to learn, share, and shape how they use Benchling to push gene editing forward. Her nominator described her as “the driving force behind her organization’s Benchling usage.” At a company working on some of the world’s most exciting editing tools, Hannah ensures the science — and the scientists — are supported every step of the way.

Michael Ford, co-founder of Computed Field, a biotech software firm that regularly partners with Benchling and LifeEdit, described Wiedner's impact this way:

“Her proactive leadership and deep platform knowledge have made her the go-to expert for colleagues navigating complex workflows or looking to innovate within Benchling."

Ken Robbins truly embodies the spirit of the Benchling community, His work at Go2 Software helps life sciences organizations modernize and scale their digital ecosystems, but his impact stretches far beyond consulting engagements. Ken has become a cornerstone of the broader Benchling Community as the person who shows up consistently to help others succeed.

With more than 10,000 community points, he is an active contributor to the Benchling Community platform. Ken also launched the Benching Bistro blog to share deep-dive tutorials, created an open data standard for Benchling configuration management and maintains an open-source SQL repository to help teams accelerate insights. Furthermore, he runs the Boston User Group, fostering opportunities for in-person connection.

As Robbins shared himself:

 “I hope my posts are supportive, useful, balanced, and presented in a friendly and sometimes fun way.”

Umoja Biopharma is pioneering in vivo CAR-T therapies — an approach that could transform cancer treatment by generating therapeutic immune cells directly inside the body. Delivering on this breakthrough takes bold science, meticulous execution, and a culture of collaboration.

Within that environment, Vinnie Verruto stands out as someone who ensures others can do their best work. Vinnie has become one of the most engaged members of the Benchling Community, consistently answering questions, sharing lessons learned, and helping teams across organizations troubleshoot challenges. At a company pushing the boundaries of immuno-oncology, Vinnie’s steady presence helps scientists adopt new efficient workflows, and collaborate more effectively. 

Moderna’s mission to deliver on the promise of mRNA medicines demands a digital foundation that can keep pace with rapid scientific iteration. That mission took a major step forward this year when Moderna expanded its use of Benchling across its research organization, creating a unified, AI-ready platform for hundreds of scientists. With stronger data standardization, automated workflows, and consolidated systems, Moderna is building the infrastructure needed to learn faster from every experiment.

The Moderna Digital Team is at the center of this transformation. Their work blends deep scientific understanding with modern engineering — using Benchling’s developer platform to build and deploy custom workflows, automate template generation, and integrate proprietary machine learning models. As Benchling rolls out across the research organization, scientists can design experiments, track samples, and analyze results within a single system, eliminating the friction of disconnected tools.

Wade Davis, Senior Vice President, Digital at Moderna put it simply:

“AI is creating extraordinary opportunities in science, but realizing its full potential requires entirely new ways of working. Benchling is tackling these industry-wide challenges head-on. Through this collaboration, our scientists have access to a strong foundation for AI and our computational scientists and engineers are empowered to do truly cutting-edge work.”

Read more about how Moderna is partnering with Benchling on AI-driven research.

Bristol Myers Squibb’s mission is to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious disease. Achieving that mission across oncology, neuroscience, immunology, and beyond requires a centralized digital data foundation that empowers scientists to move faster.

This year’s Changemakers of the Year, Umesh Katpally and Shawn Smith, have led one of the most ambitious transformations we’ve seen toward that vision. Driving a major system consolidation across BMS Research, they created a unified Benchling strategy that aligns teams, data, and workflows across therapeutic areas. Their nominator noted that “their ability to communicate clearly and build consensus — from top executives down to the scientists at the bench — has been nothing short of remarkable.”

Their work has already delivered tangible impact by reshaping how data flows across BMS’s core Thematic Research Centers, including Oncology and Neuroscience. This implementation creates a modern unified foundation for capturing experiments, sharing insights, and accelerating decision-making.

As Bridget Cox, Global Program Manager at Benchling, stated:

“They are driven by the goal to improve the scientist user experience and ultimately free up their time to work on the meaningful science that will change patient lives.”

A community that moves science forward

This year’s Changemakers reflect what makes the Benchling community exceptional — deep expertise, a passion for helping others, and a commitment to accelerating science through better data, tools, and collaboration.

Congratulations to all our winners! Discover how this year’s Benchtalk Europe's Changemaker awardees are driving digital transformation across Europe with Benchling.