Recursion Pharmaceuticals has announced a key addition to its leadership team, as Dr. Sharath Hegde will be joining the clinical-stage biotech company as its new chief scientific officer.

Sharath is an experienced drug hunter who has seen multiple drugs from discovery through approval. He joins Recursion after more than 28 years in the industry and a 15 year-career at Theravance Biopharma, where he most recently served as senior VP of research.

“I am incredibly excited to join the talented team at Recursion and become a part of its vibrant, collaborative culture,” said Dr. Hegde.

He continued, “The application of AI to image-based technologies is well-proven in other industries, and Recursion is leading the way by leveraging its state-of-the-art machine learning and deep biological expertise to understand human disease. I am convinced that Recursion’s approach has the potential to create a paradigm shift in the discovery and development of transformative medicines, particularly in those cases where traditional methods have eluded effective treatments for decades.”

He will bring extensive scientific experience and rigor to Recursion’s high-tech, AI/ML-enabled approach to drug discovery and development.