Satori Neuro Chief Investment Officer and General Partner Amy Kruse, Ph.D., brings a scientific sensibility when selecting companies to seed. As a neuroscientist, her interests are research-driven and wide-ranging, including therapeutics, psychedelic medicines, neuromodulation and personalized access to care.
“I’m really excited about precision neuroscience and precision psychiatry,” she said. “How do we think about building and implementing biomarkers in this space so individuals can get into the right treatment the first time?”
Neurotech and its potential to shift into the “read-write space” — directly changing the brain — also intrigues Kruse. So too technology that can decipher the inner workings of the brain itself. Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are an example, neural translators already decoding thoughts, and could one day possibly do the same with memories, or perhaps uncover the underlying elements of human consciousness. Kruse is fueled by the prospect of unraveling these mechanisms.
“As we’re entering this AI world, it seems like understanding the human is pretty important,” she said.
Kruse spent more than five years at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in its Defense Sciences Office, where she created and oversaw the agency’s first performance-focused neuroscience programs. Her work spanned research on augmented cognition, accelerated learning, stress resistance, and other areas at both the individual and team level.
Kruse earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. She is a member of the External Oversight Committee for the NIH Blueprint MedTech program, an advisor to the BrainMind ecosystem, and a Founding Council Member of the Loomis Innovation Council at The Stimson Center think tank.
In addition to her previous role with DARPA, she continues to advise the agency, among other organizations, including the National Academies and the Defense Science Board. Previously, Kruse was the vice president and chief technology officer for military training firm Cubic Global Defense, and a venture partner with venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab. Kruse serves as a board member for BCI company Paradromics, assisted reality startup Cognixion, neurotech firm Attune Neurosciences and therapeutics enterprise Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, among others. She is also the author of dozens of articles, chapters, and papers, and writes regularly on her Substack, New in Human Flourishing.
Please join us and welcome Dr. Kruse to the DOC 2026 Faculty.