David Welch
David is Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder at Synthesis Capital, an investment manager focused on transforming the food system and broader biomanufacturing sector through enabling technologies. At Synthesis, David combines his background in plant biology, cell therapy, and alternative proteins to identify and support high-potential companies operating at the intersection of biology, chemistry, and food technology, with a particular focus on technical diligence, platform evaluation, and scale-up risk. He works closely with founders and portfolio teams to navigate technical strategy, scale-up pathways, and organizational decision-making at the science–commercial interface.
Prior to Synthesis, David was Director of Science and Technology at GFI, where he worked with start-ups, investors, corporations, and universities to accelerate the development, scale-up, and commercialization of alternative protein technologies. In this role, he operated across the full translation pathway, helping align scientific ideas with commercial and manufacturing realities. Earlier in his career, David held commercial and technical roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Qiagen, Meso Scale Discovery, and 3M, where his work spanned the development and commercialization of tools, reagents, and platforms supporting cell therapy, bioprocessing, and pharmaceutical applications.
David earned a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Plant Developmental Cell Biology from Utrecht University. He is particularly interested in how scientific platforms translate, or fail to translate, under real-world constraints of scale, cost, and reliability.
Sessions
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Engineering the Future of Food: Fermentation and the Path to Scalable Innovation19-Mar-2026Main Stage
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