Meet the 2026 Benchtalk Boston Changemakers

Celebrating our exceptional community of scientists, builders, and leaders.

AI is changing how R&D gets done, and the teams making the most of it are pairing inventive use cases with well-structured data. This was the focus of Benchtalk Boston 2026, where hundreds of scientists, IT leaders, and R&D executives gathered to talk about what comes next.

The Changemaker Awards, presented at the conference, honored the individuals and teams leading by example: structuring their data thoughtfully, putting agents to work alongside scientists, building their own tools, and helping other users succeed. Here are their stories.

Data quality and impact

Changemaker of the Year: Melody Shahsavarian, Lilly

Benchling’s highest honor, for making the biggest impact on how a company uses Benchling to advance science.

Melody Shahsavarian has led digital transformation in Lilly’s Discovery Biologics (BioTDR) function for the past two years. Today, 60% of BioTDR assays capture structured, AI-ready data, up from 10% a year ago. Her work brought more BioTDR users onto Benchling and inspired other Lilly teams to accelerate their own adoption.

This award is shared with the BioTDR team at Lilly. Together, we structured our assay data at the source in Benchling and created a critical foundation for AI innovation. I’m excited to bring that approach to more teams across Lilly.

 — Melody Shahsavarian, Senior Director of Data Strategy and Digital Transformation, Lilly

Impact Award: Charlotte Bourg, Calico Life Sciences

Delivering measurable results, like better data quality and less manual work.

Charlotte Bourg archived unused registry schemas to cut system sprawl at Calico, built a workflow to move the Media Prep team off paper records, and built a compliance dashboard to track progress and set data-driven goals. The result is better data quality and less manual admin work for scientists.

Data Scientist of the Year: Sai Suresh, 21st.BIO

Raising the bar for what’s possible with scientific data.

Sai Suresh runs Benchling for scientists from California to Denmark. She built a canvas app for fermentation sample registration from real-time data, bridged handoffs across departments and sites, and created web apps for streamlining data analysis and capture.

Innovation and AI

Builder Award: Benchling Core Team, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

Extending Benchling with apps, integrations, or APIs that benefit the whole organization.

The Benchling core team at Johnson & Johnson used Benchling’s developer platform to connect scientific workflows across development.

Johnson & Johnson’s Benchling implementation exemplifies cross-functional scientific collaboration at enterprise scale. The program has focused on developing multiple custom integrations, structured data capture, ontology-driven data models, workflows, and automated data exchange between Benchling and adjacent R&D systems. Beyond technology deployment, the program created a culture of shared ownership. The result is a more connected scientific organization and a stronger digital thread across the development lifecycle.

— Pasquale Valerio, Scientist, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

AI Pioneer Award: Michelle Hortter and Timin Hadi, Amgen

Finding the most impactful way to put AI to work in R&D.

Michelle Hortter and Timin Hadi have been central to the Benchling-Amgen partnership from the start. Most recently, they took on an AI pilot across Amgen’s Large Molecule Discovery organization, enabling scientists on Benchling AI and validating high-value use cases with subject matter experts. They also supported an early pilot of Science Foundries for Amgen’s antibody discovery biofoundry, setting clear governance and keeping the user experience front and center.

Patient Impact Award: Keith Mattar, Prime Medicine

Moving a therapy program closer to the clinic.

Keith Mattar keeps Prime Medicine’s science running on Benchling. He helped bring AI-assisted study report drafting into production to speed up IND-enabling work. He also partnered on an AI co-scientist for analytical method development.

Innovation Award: Ken Robbins, Go2 Software

Solving a hard scientific or operational problem in a creative way.

Ken Robbins created Kenfigure, an open standard that describes a Benchling configuration as human- and machine-readable files, and Kenfigure Tool, which exports, deploys, and displays the configuration in an interactive data model visualizer. With the data model in files, AI can analyze, extend, and modify it, so teams can meet evolving scientific needs faster.

Adoption and community

Fastest to Scale: Alex Nisthal, Xencor

Going from implementation to full adoption in standout time, and doing it right.

Alex Nisthal, Xencor’s Benchling system owner, uses agentic AI to write custom integrations, including tools that pull images from instrument exports into the right records and ingest files with no manual entry. He also champions usage by co-leading a quarterly user summit where Xencor’s heaviest AI users demo their work.

Collaboration Award: Dana Nelson, FUJIFILM Life Sciences

Breaking down silos and advancing science together.

Dana Nelson supports more than 150 active Benchling users at FUJIFILM Life Sciences and champions the business case for advanced analysis and instrument connectivity. She exemplifies the ownership that makes the Benchling community stronger.

Community Champion: George Mayhew, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

Supporting, teaching, and lifting up other Benchling users.

George Mayhew is a longtime Benchling power user and community builder who hosts a regular user group in Madison, Wisconsin. He’s a key beta tester for Benchling’s new Workflows configuration experience, and his detailed feedback has shaped the product.

Startup Trailblazer: Tim Colussi, Enko

Accelerating discovery with Benchling as a smaller company.

Tim Colussi manages all Benchling admin for Enko and drives AI and platform adoption through usage audits, demos, office hours, and internal announcements. He also brings high-value scientific questions to Benchling’s AI team, helping shape the product roadmap.

Congratulations to this year’s winners, and thank you to our community. You’re turning data and AI into progress for patients.

Join us at Benchtalk Europe in London on December 3–4, where we’ll announce more Changemakers. Register now.