Workshop: Skill-amplified AI for biological data - agentic workflows with reusable skills 

Wednesday June 3rd 2026 | 11.30am - 1.00pm | Room 51

Scientists who can code can now move from idea to a working prototype much faster, if they know how to collaborate effectively with coding agents.

This interactive workshop teaches practical workflows for using agentic AI tools as a partner in biological data science, with a focus on building reliable habits and debugging when things break. 
 
The technical core is a biological sequence task using a public dataset. We will build a small proof-of-concept model and a lightweight interface for exploring results. The point is not a polished model. The point is learning how to structure work so the agent stays on track, and how to recover when it does not. 

PharmAI roundtable

Moderators

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Speaker profile image for Eric Ma

Eric Ma

Senior Principal Data Scientist, Moderna

    What to expect

    • Agentic data science with skills: using an agent to accelerate data exploration, preparation, model iteration, and evaluation, while keeping work reproducible. 
    • Agentic tool building with skills: using an agent to rapidly prototype small tools and interfaces that fit your workflow, without turning the project into a frontend engineering exercise. 
    • We will also demonstrate a lightweight journaling pattern that uses an agent to track decisions and the evolution of your approach, so you can revisit what changed and why. 

    Who should attend

    • Researchers and practitioners who want practical, transferable workflows for AI-assisted coding. 
    • Bioinformaticians and data scientists who want to speed up prototyping without losing rigor. 
    • Technical leads and product-minded scientists exploring rapid tool development.

    Event format

    • Two complementary workflows frame the session. 
    • Comfort reading and editing code helps.
    • If you know how to git clone a code repository, you'll be set with materials.
    • You do not need deep ML expertise. Bring a laptop with your preferred coding agent setup (Copilot, Claude, Cursor, OpenCode, or equivalent). 

     

    What the workshop will focus on

    • Mindset and operating principles for working with coding agents 

    • Agentic coding harnesses and how they navigate and edit repositories 

    • Prompting and scaffolding patterns that keep development grounded 

    • Repository guardrails such as tests, linting, and code checks 

    • An AGENTS.md style constitution to constrain agent behavior 

    • Reusable skills for common workflows, especially debugging and evaluation 

    • Using an agent as a lightweight journal to track decisions, hypotheses, and iteration history 

    • Hands-on debugging of real failures, with a group-driven troubleshooting loop

    Register your interest

    Please be aware that there are only a limited amount of places available. Attendance is limited to approved Festival attendees only. Please select this workshop when registering for your place.

    All registrations will be reviewed by the organising committee and approved participants will receive confirmation and event details.

    Please contact info@frontlinegenomics.com if you have any questions.

     

    Register here (opens in a new tab)