Dr. Kat Kayser-Bricker is an accomplished drug discovery leader with experience across several therapeutic areas and target families, with core expertise in small molecule cancer drug discovery. She joined Halda Therapeutics, which was recently acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $3.05 billion, as an original team member shortly after founding, bringing her enthusiasm for company building, oncology, and platform innovation. She leads all scientific functions as well as strategic and operational aspects of the business. Previously, Dr. Kayser-Bricker spent 10 years as a key scientific leader at FORMA Therapeutics, a public company that was acquired in 2022 by Novo Nordisk for $1.1 billion. She held several roles with increasing responsibility, including Head of Early Discovery Chemistry where she was part of a three-person leadership team responsible for target nomination and validation, hit finding, and nomination for portfolio inclusion. She led numerous projects from hit finding through lead optimization and development candidate selection. She was responsible for maintaining several collaborative external alliances with academic and pharmaceutical partners for portfolio and technology advancements.