Sander Timmer, PhD, is spearheading GSK’s strategic initiatives to revolutionize the Global Supply Chain with data and AI as Senior Director of AI and Decision Sciences. With over 20 years of experience in Data Science, ranging from writing neural nets to leading teams of data scientists and data engineers delivering production AI systems, Sander has been instrumental in driving innovation in the field. Prior to joining GSK, Sander served as an Industry Solutions Manager in Microsoft’s worldwide Health and Life Sciences team, where he helped strategic accounts leverage cloud-based AI, from simple Machine Learning models to Deep Learning architectures and Genomics solutions.

Sander obtained my PhD from the University of Cambridge and EMBL – European Bioinformatics Institute specialising in Big Data Biology.

My work at GSK

I am leading GSK Vaccines’ strategic efforts on utilizing data and AI/ML to create the healthcare of tomorrow. 

My work at Microsoft

At Microsoft I’ve been involved in many large-scale digital transformation projects using machine learning and artificial intelligence. Below are some press releases from my key projects. 

Develop AI-enabled digital health tool for early leprosy detection with Novartis Foundation

Press release by Novartis Foundation.

Digital Transformation at Tetra Pak

Press release by Microsoft.

Aviation Analytics at Rolls-Royce

For Rolls-Royce and Singapore Airlines focusing on Fuel Analytics and Predictive Maintenance.

Press release by Rolls-Royce and Microsoft.

Predictive Maintenance at Otis Elevators

Press release by Otis Elevators.

My PhD

In Ewan Birney‘ team, I worked on understanding genetic variation on both molecular and whole body phenotypes. My PhD thesis has been published under the title understanding the human epigenome using system genetics.  To this extent, I have been working on the following project:

• With Richard Durbin and Vishy Iyer working on heritable transcription factor binding measured using CTCF-seq. My part mainly focuses on CTCF to CTCF interactions and CTCF on the X-Chromosome.
  • Published in PLOS Genetics: Quantitative Genetics of CTCF Binding Reveal Local Sequence Effects and Different Modes of X-Chromosome Association.
• With the Molecular Cardiology MRC department at London to obtain robust measurements of the Human skeleton phenotypes and Human heart phenotypes from MRI scans using Machine Learning approaches.
• With several labs from the ENCODE scale-up group (Jason Lieb, Greg Crawford and Vishy Iyer) working on genome-wide associations on heritable chromatin signatures (cQTL) measured using FAIRE-chip. The reconstruction of the Human Epigenome by integrating the chromatin status, transcription factor binding information and gene expression. Using System Genetics to determine the effect of genotypes on the epigenome.

Professional interests