SynBioBeta 2026 Speaker

Wyatt McDonnell

Infinimmune

CEO

Dr. Wyatt McDonnell is Co-Founder and CEO of Infinimmune, a biotechnology company built on the premise that the human immune system is the best source of therapeutic antibodies. Infinimmune's discovery platform has produced two development candidatesโ€”IFX-101 (anti-IL-22) and IFX-201 (anti-IL-13)โ€”and underpins a multi-target antibody discovery collaboration with Merck valued at up to $838 million in milestones. Previously, Wyatt was Technical Lead of Barcode-Enabled Antigen Mapping (BEAM) at 10x Genomics, where he also developed the company's first therapeutic antibodies and core immunology intellectual property behind three commercial products. As a faculty member at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, he studied human immune correlates of chronic viral infection and type 2 diabetes and received Young Investigator awards from CROI, the International Workshop on HIV and Aging, and the American Heart Association. He received his PhD and MSc at Vanderbilt University for his work on T and B cell biology in HIV infection, checkpoint inhibitor toxicity, and other immune-mediated diseases. Wyatt has co-authored 43 peer-reviewed papers in journals including Nature, Cell, and Nature Medicine, and 44 published patents in antibody discovery and engineering, immunobiology, genomics, and in silico antibody models. He has been invited to speak at PEGS, the Keystone Symposia, Antibody Engineering and Therapeutics, the Antibody Series, the World Vaccine Congress, LEAP, PMWC, and Biotech Showcase. He is a one-time National Spelling Bee finalist and can be found playing piano, reading, or exploring the Bay Area culinary scene in his free time.

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Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
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Reagan

Jarvis

Anocca AB

CEO, Co-founder

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Alex

Rives

CZI Biohub

Head of Science

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Karenโ€ฏ

Akinsanya

Schrodinger

President, R&D โ€“ Therapeutics

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Christopher

Arendt

Takeda

CSO, Head of Research

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Stef

van Grieken

Cradle

CEO

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Michael

Koeris

DARPA

Director, BTO

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Jennifer

Dionne

Pumpkinseed

CEO

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Daniyal

Hussain

GSK

Exec. Dir., Tech BD

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Cynthia

Hong

Novartis

Dir., Search & Evaluation

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Sarah Lynn

Tao

CSL Behring

Sr. Dir., S&E; Ig TA & Tech Lead

Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure

SynBioBeta 2027 May 3-6, San Jose, California