Breaking Protocol

In the final episode of Season 2 of Breaking Protocol, Ram Yalamanchili and Gaurav Bhatnagar reflect on the biggest lessons, themes, and insights from a season featuring clinical research leaders, CRO executives, sponsors, and innovators across the industry. The conversation explores a fundamental shift taking place in clinical trials: AI is moving beyond demos and pilots and becoming an operation...

George Magrath, MD, CEO of Opus Genetics, joins Ram Yalamanchili to discuss how Opus is approaching portfolio-scale biotech development with multiple active clinical programs, something unimaginable without the use of AI. George believes the traditional single-asset biotech models may no longer be sustainable and that AI-native operations allow smaller teams to execute far more efficiently than ev...

AI is about to force a much bigger conversation in clinical research than most people realize. In this episode, Ram Yalamanchili, CEO of Tilda Research, and Paulius Ojeras, VP of Clinical Operations at Perceive Biotherapeutics, dig into how AI could change the economics of running studies, not just by improving quality and accelerating timelines, but by putting real pressure on the traditional CRO...

In this episode, Ram Yalamanchili sits down with Shobhit Shrotriya, Managing Director of Global Life Sciences R&D Operations at Accenture, to unpack what it will actually take for AI to move beyond mere pilots to full production in clinical research. Drawing on deep AI expertise, as well as decades of experience in clinical operations, Shobhit explains why most organizations are still thinking...

Clinical trials have become more scientifically sophisticated, yet many of the operational challenges behind them remain stubbornly unchanged. In this episode of Breaking Protocol, Ram Yalamanchili speaks with Ash Jayagopal, Chief Scientific and Development Officer at Opus Genetics, about the realities of running clinical trials in the era of gene therapy and ultra-rare diseases. Ash brings a rare...

Enterprise software has dominated how companies operate for decades. Krishna Cheriath, Head of Clinical Research Data and AI at Thermo Fischer Scientific, believes that model is being broken by AI teammates. In this episode of Breaking Protocol, Krishna joins Ram Yalamanchili to discuss how AI teammates are fundamentally disrupting the enterprise technology stack itself. Instead of navigating laye...

Drug development is both a science challenge and timeline challenge. In this episode, Alex Mok shares what it actually takes to build a biotech company in today’s market. From launching an specialized therapeutics platforms to navigating shifting capital markets, Alex breaks down how valuation, risk, and execution intersect in modern drug development. We explore why clinical trial timelines direct...

In this episode of Breaking Protocol, Ram Yalamanchili sits down with Paula Brown-Stafford, CEO of Allucent and one of the early architects of the CRO industry. From joining Quintiles as its 23rd employee to leading a purpose-built CRO focused on biotech innovation, Paula shares how the industry evolved from pure operational execution to intelligence-driven partnership. She explains why the real d...

In this episode of Breaking Protocol, Tilda Research CEO Ram Yalamanchili sits down with Dr. Tom Mather — Chief Medical Officer of a clinical-stage biotech, early-stage venture investor, and marathoner — to unpack the real bottlenecks in drug development. From seed-stage funding to Phase III trials, Tom shares a rare perspective of clinician + operator + investor. They discuss:• Why venture capita...

What happens when a retina specialist with a background in computer science takes on the inefficiencies of clinical research? In this insightful conversation, Dr. Mark Barakat of Retina Macula Institute joins Tilda CEO Ram Yalamanchili to explore how AI is transforming the day-to-day reality of clinical trial execution. They discuss the growing operational burdens on site staff, the silent cost of...

In a recent conversation, Dr. Houman Hemmati (ophthalmologist, clinical trialist, and biotech innovator) didn’t hold back in describing the systemic inefficiencies he sees every day. From sponsor overreach to CRO micromanagement to administrative overload at research sites, the entire model is built to sustain activity, not outcomes. He believes that AI can eliminate a lot of the operational drag...

ICON Eyecare experiences 66% data quality improvement and 90% increase in efficiency. Dr. James Fox of ICON Eyecare (Grand Junction, CO) discusses what it really takes to scale clinical research today. He walks through the burnout his team faced, the turning point that led to adopting AI teammates, and the measurable improvements in data quality, team capacity, and growth. He unpacks the staffing...

Transforming Clinical Trials with AI: An in-depth Discussion with Dr. David Chin Yee Dr. David Chin Yee, Research Director at Georgia Retina shares his journey and the transformation of the practice with the use of AI teammates. Georgia Retina is one of the largest private practice retina groups in the Southeast. As an early adopter of AI to streamline clinical research, he discusses the integrati...

A powerful conversation with Dr. George Magrath, CEO of Opus Genetics and seasoned ophthalmologist, as he shares how AI is reshaping clinical trials, and the incredible impact of AI teammates on his clinical research program. From cutting trial timelines to boosting enrollment, George reveals real-world wins in biotech and gene therapy for rare childhood blindness. Opus' near sci-fi levels of...