Donnacha Fitzgerald

Donnacha is a scientist, pharmacist, and entrepreneur working at the intersection of biology and AI. As a biotech founder and Emergent Ventures Fellow, he aims to unlock humanity’s ability to navigate and shape the design space of biology. His work focuses on engineering novel cell states for next-generation therapeutics and biomanufacturing. After earning Ireland’s top high-school chemistry award, he became Ireland’s youngest pharmacist and discovered a passion for bioengineering through research at iGEM, ETH Zurich, and Velabs Therapeutics. He completed his PhD at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), integrating single-cell multi-omics with machine learning to reveal how cellular differentiation drives tumor evolution. Donnacha also earned an MBA from Quantic and co-founded Nucleate Germany, now the country’s largest student biotech entrepreneurship network. He advises both the International Pharmaceutical Federation and the Cosmic Footprint Society on matters pertaining to biotechnology. He is passionate about advancing biodesign for the future flourishing of life on Earth and beyond.