The state of multimodal data in biotech and pharma 2025

Multimodal data has become crucial to life sciences R&D, with its integration seen as essential for advancing research in areas such as immunology and oncology by enabling better target discovery and patient stratification. Despite its potential, challenges such as complexity in data management and issues related to governance and compliance persist, as highlighted by industry leaders from companies like Sanofi, AstraZeneca, and Novartis. There is a consensus on the need for advanced data management platforms that can handle diverse data types, incorporate data science and machine learning capabilities, and unify disparate data sources into a single coherent system. TileDB's new platform, Carrara, aims to address these challenges by providing a multimodal lakehouse that facilitates the organization, collaboration, and analysis of multimodal data, thereby simplifying governance and compliance while enhancing research efficiency.