Zahra Timsah’s journey spans biomedical research, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, and healthcare innovation. In this episode, Zahra shares how her curiosity and passion for experimentation led her from medical school to PhDs in biochemistry and cancer biology, academic research, and eventually entrepreneurship. Her desire to move beyond generating scientific knowledge toward creating tangible impact for patients pushed her to develop new skills in business, finance, and technology. As early as 2016, she was pioneering the use of AI in drug discovery and disease modeling at a time when the technology was still considered futuristic by many. Zahra argues that the future of healthcare AI is not about replacing human expertise, but amplifying it through what she calls “collective intelligence.” She explains why specialized, expert-guided AI will be increasingly important in healthcare and why trustworthy data, transparency, auditability, observability, and human oversight are essential to responsible AI governance. Through her company iGentic, Zahra is working to turn complex regulatory knowledge, internal expertise, and organizational workflows into AI-enabled systems that can help healthcare and life sciences teams move from drafting to submission more efficiently. For leaders, her message is clear: educate yourself about AI, understand what good looks like, measure the value it creates, and start with focused pilots rather than following technology trends blindly. The conversation also explores Zahra’s personal definition of leadership and legacy. She sees leadership as inspiring others and creating impact that resonates beyond personal visibility, while emphasizing the importance of continually reinventing yourself in response to changing needs. She reflects on inspiring the next generation of her family, supporting talent in Lebanon, and the power of the BioLink community to connect Lebanese leaders around collaboration and action. Her final advice to healthcare leaders captures the spirit of the conversation: don’t follow trends, focus on what helps you achieve your mission and vision, and learn from the mistakes of those who went before you. "It’s not artificial intelligence. It’s collective intelligence." MEET OUR GUEST Zahra Timsah, Co-Founder & CEO of i-GENTIC AI. Dr. Zahra Timsah, PhD, MBA, MSc, is a scientist, entrepreneur, and AI governance leader with more than 18 years of experience across biotechnology, pharma, MedTech, healthcare, financial services, and regulated AI. Her career started at the bench, where she worked on biomedical research, published scientific work, contributed to patented innovation, and was affiliated with leading institutions including Cancer Research UK and the Royal Society. That foundation gave her deep exposure to the full bench-to-bedside pathway: discovery, translational research, clinical development, IND and BLA readiness, regulatory strategy, commercialization, and market adoption. She later moved from science into enterprise transformation, building and scaling AI-driven platforms and data businesses across healthcare, pharma, MedTech, and financial services. She has held leadership roles across organizations including IQVIA, GSK, and MassMutual, and has helped build AI and Data Analytics Centers of Excellence that brought together data governance, regulatory intelligence, AI strategy, operating models, and enterprise adoption. Zahra has founded and exited multiple companies, including one IPO, and has worked with Fortune 500 organizations on AI deployment, precision medicine, regulatory intelligence, compliance, and digital transformation. Her work bridges science, product, regulation, and commercialization, giving her a rare end-to-end view of how innovation moves from research into real-world clinical, enterprise, and market settings. She has also contributed to policy and advisory initiatives connected to the FDA, U.S. Senate, World Economic Forum, and broader regulatory ecosystems, with a focus on safe AI adoption, data compliance, Software as a Medical Device, and responsible deployment of emerging technologies. Today, Zahra is applying that same bench-to-bedside discipline to AI. Her focus is on making governance operational, not theoretical, by turning complex regulations, SOPs, clinical requirements, and enterprise policies into real-time controls that can govern AI systems, data workflows, MedTech submissions, healthcare operations, and enterprise decisions before risk becomes failure. This episode is in partnership with BIOLINK.org, For more episode with Biolinkers click here.
