2026 IMDS Symposium Keynote Address:
Building, Scaling and Using AI Engines
presented by
Jeff Leek, PhD
Vice President and Chief Data Officer, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Please join us at the 2026 IMDS Symposium on Tuesday, June 2nd, where Dr. Jeff Leek will deliver our keynote address. Dr. Leek’s talk is scheduled for 10:00-10:30 AM.
Abstract:
Healthcare institutions are rushing to develop their AI strategies. There are frequent discussions of opportunities, risks, and fear of missing out. In this talk I will describe our efforts to build an “AI engine” for oncology at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center by building a shared data and computational resource enabling translational research. I will discuss our collective efforts to scale this engine to national scale through the Cancer AI Alliance in collaboration with multiple cancer centers including Memorial Sloan Kettering. I will highlight the potential of these engines for driving AI innovation through the example of foundation models built on a public data AI engine. Finally I will discuss what to do once we have machine learned everything. This is joint work with many people in the Fred Hutch Data Office, the Cancer AI Alliance, Synthesize Bio, and multiple research collaborators.
Bio:
Dr. Jeff Leek is vice president and chief data officer of Fred Hutch. In these roles, he leads efforts to shape and implement Fred Hutch’s integrated data science enterprise, and fosters partnerships within the Seattle area’s data science and technology ecosystem. His goal is for Hutch researchers to be able to access field-leading computational resources to advance their science. He also works with faculty to create tools and services that help the Hutch better collect, manage, use and share data, As a biostatistician, Leek develops statistical methods, software, and data resources and analyses that help researchers make sense of massive-scale genomic and biomedical data. As an educational leader, Leek has helped craft online open courses in data science that have enrolled millions. He has also partnered with community-based nonprofits to use data science education for economic and public health development.
(via Dr. Leek’s Fred Hutch Profile page)