Amy Kruse, Ph.D.
Dr. Amy Kruse is the chief investment officer of Satori Neuro, a stage-agnostic fund focused on mental health, neurotechnology, and human flourishing. Amy leverages her decades of experience as a neuroscientist, her prior roles as an operator and a government program manager, and her network of key relationships to discover transformational companies addressing the largest mental health, brain health, and wellness challenges and opportunities. She also draws on her expertise to support Satori Neuro’s portfolio companies as they evaluate and overcome scientific and implementation challenges, with a specific emphasis on deploying complex technology into real-world environments.
Prior to leading Satori Neuro, Amy was a General Partner at Prime Movers Lab, where she led the fund’s life sciences investments in human augmentation and longevity. She serves on the boards of six Prime Movers Lab portfolio companies: Cognixion, Paradromics, Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, Attune Neurosciences, Morphoceuticals, and Dimension Inx. She serves on the board of Satori Neuro portfolio company TARA Mind and is a Board Observer to Satori Neuro portfolio companies Apollo Neuro and Feel Therapeutics.
She previously served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Optios, an applied neuroscience research organization that translates cutting-edge neuroscience discoveries into practical tools to enhance the human experience. At Optios, Amy built the company’s scientific vision, initiated high-value projects, and completed acquisitions that resulted in a robust intellectual property portfolio for an early-stage company.
Prior to joining Optios, Amy served as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Cubic Global Defense, where she oversaw the company’s research and development (R&D) programs. Her efforts at Cubic dramatically accelerated and enhanced the company’s R&D capabilities, which in turn yielded an expanded product portfolio and increased sales. Amy joined Cubic through the acquisition of Intific, a small business focused on novel game-based solutions for the DoD and Intelligence Community.
Early in her career, Amy served as a government civilian program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where she created and oversaw the Agency’s first performance-oriented neuroscience programs. Her efforts at DARPA generated scientific breakthroughs in areas that include augmented cognition, accelerated learning, optimized imagery analysis, team neurodynamics, and neuromodulation. This work was the result of multiple programs that measurably enhanced both individual and team performance in the U.S. military and Intelligence community.
Amy is member of the External Oversight Committee for the NIH Blueprint MedTech program, an advisor to the BrainMind ecosystem, an advisor to the Capital Factory in Texas, and a mentor to the OneMind Accelerator. She is a frequent contributor to defense panels and advisory boards for organizations including DARPA, the National Academies, and the Defense Science Board. She is also the author of numerous scientific papers, chapters, and articles.
Amy earned a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Structural Biology and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.
Amy lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with her husband and is an avid gardener, kayaker, and traveler.