DERI Seminar - Hypothesis generation at the fusion of knowledge graphs and AI agents
When: Thursday, October 1, 2026, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Where: online
Do join us for the first in our latest series of DERI Seminars at 11am on Thursday 1st October. We are delighted to welcome Prof Chris Rawlings and Dr Keywan Hassani-Pak, who will join us to share their expertise in bioinformatics, computational biology and data-driven approaches to biological research.
Title: Hypothesis generation at the fusion of knowledge graphs and AI agents
Abstract: Gene discovery is bottlenecked not by data but by decisions: which of dozens of candidate genes deserves years of bench work? The evidence needed to answer is scattered across millions of papers, thousands of genomes and hundreds of databases. Knowledge graphs and large language models each solve half the problem. Knowledge graphs hold grounded, traceable biology but must be queried by hand; language models reason fluently but hallucinate and cannot cite. KnetMiner brings the two together. Its knowledge graphs integrate genomics, genetics, expression, phenotypes, interactions and literature into over 200 million typed, sourced relations across many plant species, and semantic search returns ranked, inspectable evidence networks rather than lists of hits. KnetMiner Agentic then hands the graph to AI agents: a curated, auditable workflow that runs the discovery loop autonomously and proposes new gene–trait connections that are traceable, testable and clearly flagged as predictions. The graph gives AI grounded context to reason over; the agent gives the graph the ability to ask its own questions; the final judgement stays human.
Bio: Keywan Hassani-Pak, Head of Bioinformatics at Rothamsted Research and Founder/CEO of KnetMiner Ltd., has over 18 years of experience in integrative bioinformatics. His work focuses on turning massive, fragmented multi-omics data into actionable discoveries for crop improvement. He is the lead architect of KnetMiner, a gene discovery platform that uses advanced knowledge graphs and AI to scan millions of relationships in biological databases and literature. This software allows researchers to intuitively explore hidden genetic networks behind complex plant traits. Dr. Hassani-Pak advocates for evidence-based hypothesis generation, integrating FAIR data principles with modern AI to accelerate candidate gene discovery and drive sustainable agriculture innovations.
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Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/38883192507176?p=1jYrWZtQGbx9oUFWrT
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