Γ

SynBioBeta Speaker

Blair Willette

KdT Ventures

Investor

Blair Willette, PhD, is an investor at KdT Ventures, where she focuses on early-stage investments at the intersection of biology, chemistry, and deep tech. KdT partners with founders building transformative companies across therapeutics, materials, energy, and industrials, with a focus on science-first platforms capable of scaling into meaningful commercial outcomes.Blair brings a rigorous scientific lens to investing, with a PhD in Pharmacology from Duke University, where she focused on G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling and built tools to interrogate the spatial and temporal dynamics of cellular signaling. She applies this training to deeply evaluate the molecular foundations of new technologies and assess their potential to translate into differentiated processes or products.At KdT, Blair works closely with founders from company formation through early clinical development or commercialization, performing technical diligence and supporting strategy, positioning, and fundraising. Her investment interests span next-generation therapeutics as well as non-healthcare applications of biology and chemistry, including bio-based materials, industrial platforms, and climate technologies.She is particularly passionate about helping scientific founders translate complex innovations into scalable businesses and compelling narratives for investors.

Sessions Featuring

Blair

This Year

NextGen BioLeaders Program

•

9:00 AM

-

10:00 AM

General

Bold VC Perspectives: How Biotech Gets Funded Today

A curated lineup of leading biotech VCs, each delivering a 5-minute rapid-fire briefing covering: fund focus, investment thesis, selection process, and their most actionable advice for fundraising in the current market

Featuring

Ivan Jaubert

SynBioBeta

Director of Entrepreneurship

Startup-ecosystem builder connecting founders, investors, and corporates.

Omri Amirav-Drory

NFX

General Partner

Scientist-founder VC: built Genome Compiler, now backs techbio.

Blair Willette

KdT Ventures

Investor

Nicole Sonnert

Playground Global

Investment Associate

Elliot Hershberg

Amplify Partners

Partner, Author

Driving the Century of Biology

Rohan Ganesh

Obvious Ventures

Partner

NextGen BioLeaders Program

•

9:00 AM

-

10:00 AM

General

Bold VC Perspectives: How Biotech Gets Funded Today

A curated lineup of leading biotech VCs, each delivering a 5-minute rapid-fire briefing covering: fund focus, investment thesis, selection process, and their most actionable advice for fundraising in the current market

Featuring

Ivan Jaubert

SynBioBeta

Director of Entrepreneurship

Startup-ecosystem builder connecting founders, investors, and corporates.

Omri Amirav-Drory

NFX

General Partner

Scientist-founder VC: built Genome Compiler, now backs techbio.

Blair Willette

KdT Ventures

Investor

Nicole Sonnert

Playground Global

Investment Associate

Elliot Hershberg

Amplify Partners

Partner, Author

Driving the Century of Biology

Rohan Ganesh

Obvious Ventures

Partner

TBD

Session lineup still growing

Featuring

Speaker Coming Soon

Fireside Chat

•

12:00 AM

-

8:30 AM

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?

Featuring

Speaker Coming Soon

Previous Speakers Include