SynBioBeta Speaker
Ekaterine Kortkhonjia
J&J
Sr. Dir, Transactions
Eka Kortkhonjia, Ph.D., M.S., is a Senior Director of Transactions at Johnson & Johnson, where she leads strategic partnering efforts aimed at advancing transformative innovation across the company’s priority therapeutic areas. In her role, she is responsible for evaluating external scientific opportunities, overseeing due diligence, and structuring strategic transactions that support the company’s long term R&D and portfolio objectives.Eka also plays a key role in shaping the innovation ecosystem surrounding Johnson & Johnson. She supports the Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC venture fund, working closely with early stage companies to accelerate breakthrough science. In addition, she collaborates with the global JLABS incubator network, helping nurture emerging biotech and technology platforms by providing strategic insights and fostering connections that enable growth.Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Eka spent more than 13 years at Genentech/Roche in roles of increasing responsibility across Pharma Partnering, Biomarker Development, and Investor Relations. Her experience spans end to end partnering strategy, biomarker and translational program leadership, and communication of scientific and business priorities to investors and external stakeholders. Throughout her career, Eka has built a strong track record of integrating science, strategy, and cross functional collaboration to support innovation from discovery to development.Before transitioning into industry leadership roles, Eka completed postdoctoral training at both the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Genentech. During this time, she conducted research at the intersection of biophysics, structural biology, and translational science, contributing to a deeper understanding of complex biological systems. Eka holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology and an M.S. in Biophysics.
SynBioBeta 2026 Tickets are Live
Confirmed Speakers
Sessions Featuring
Ekaterine
This Year
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Human Health
Bridging Discovery and Delivery: Startup–Pharma Alliances for the AI Era
As biology becomes programmable and AI accelerates discovery, startups are generating breakthrough innovations at unprecedented speed. Yet translating these advances into real-world therapies still depends on effective collaboration with global pharmaceutical organizations. This session explores how the innovation ecosystem connects early-stage breakthroughs to scalable development, bringing together leaders from startup incubation, external innovation, and pharma strategy. Speakers will examine how AI-native biotech companies engage with pharma today: how startups become “pharma-ready,” how external innovation teams evaluate and structure partnerships, and what collaboration models are emerging as biology and computation converge. From early ecosystem support and venture building to strategic alliances and co-development pathways, the discussion will provide a practical look at how ideas move from discovery to patient impact in the AI era.
Purchase Pass
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Human Health
Bridging Discovery and Delivery: Startup–Pharma Alliances for the AI Era
As biology becomes programmable and AI accelerates discovery, startups are generating breakthrough innovations at unprecedented speed. Yet translating these advances into real-world therapies still depends on effective collaboration with global pharmaceutical organizations. This session explores how the innovation ecosystem connects early-stage breakthroughs to scalable development, bringing together leaders from startup incubation, external innovation, and pharma strategy. Speakers will examine how AI-native biotech companies engage with pharma today: how startups become “pharma-ready,” how external innovation teams evaluate and structure partnerships, and what collaboration models are emerging as biology and computation converge. From early ecosystem support and venture building to strategic alliances and co-development pathways, the discussion will provide a practical look at how ideas move from discovery to patient impact in the AI era.
Purchase Pass
Session lineup still growing
Purchase Pass
Featuring
Speaker Coming Soon
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Human Health
From Cells to Patients: Solving the Scale Mismatch in Virtual Biology
Drug discovery often measures biology at the cell level while interventions work at the tissue, organ, or whole-patient scale. This mismatch can make accurate cell-level predictions irrelevant in the clinic. This session dives into strategies to bridge that gap: multiscale modeling that nests single-cell dynamics within organ-level simulations, spatial transcriptomics that preserve context, and surrogate models that translate cell-level outputs into clinical biomarkers. Speakers will ask: how do we ensure virtual biology reflects not just what cells do in isolation, but how biology behaves in the real complexity of patients?
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Featuring
Speaker Coming Soon
