# David R. Walt

> David R. Walt is a seed investor at Protillion Biosciences backing Biotechnology and Genetics. See 8 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Protillion Biosciences](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/protillion-biosciences)
- Location: Boston, United States
- Total investments: 8
- Last investment: Dec 2022
- Lead investor: 13%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-walt-29935b8

David R. Walt is a seed investor at Protillion Biosciences in Boston focused on Biotechnology and Genetics. David is Professor in the Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. David is the Scientific Founder of Illumina Inc. and Quanterix Corp and has co-founded several other life sciences startups. David has published over 300peer-reviewed papers and has over 75 issued US patents. He has received numerous national and international awards and honors for his fundamental and applied work in the field of optical microwell arrays and single molecules including the American Chemical Society Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success, Ralph Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, the American Chemical Society Gustavus John Esselen Award, Analytical Chemistry Spectrochemical Analysis Award, the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award, and the ACS National Award for Creative Invention. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Chemical Biology from SUNY at Stony Brook, and did postdoctoral studies at MIT.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $2M–$5M |
| Series A | $18M–$25M |
| Series B | $5.4M–$37M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 5 | 63% |
| Genetics | 3 | 38% |
| Life Science | 2 | 25% |
| Medical | 1 | 13% |
| Big Data | 1 | 13% |

12 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 2 | 25% |
| Series A | 2 | 25% |
| Series B | 2 | 25% |
| Funding Round | 2 | 25% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Protillion Biosciences | Protillion Biosciences is a biotech company commercializing disruptive technology for therapeutic antibody and drug discovery and accelerating biologic research and development productivity. | $18M | Series A | Dec 19, 2022 |  |
| Torus Biosystems | Torus Biosystems offers an apparatus for DNA testing for scientific and medical research purposes in the fields of consumer products, food for human beings or animals, hygienic and beauty care for human beings or animals, agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. The company was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | $25M | Series A | May 26, 2021 |  |
| Vizgen | Vizgen is a privately held biotech company developing the next generation of spatially resolved, single-cell transcriptomics technology and toolbox. The company's patented MERFISH technology enables massively multiplexed, genome-scale nucleic acid imaging with high accuracy and detection efficiency at subcellular resolution. The highthroughput and resolution and the low cost per cell achieved by the technology will enable a wide range of tissue-scale basic research and development and will be instrumental to efforts to discover and map cell types and states in a range of tissues and organisms. | $37M | Series B | Apr 07, 2021 |  |
| Stoicheia | Stoicheia is a nanotechnology company accelerating materials discovery by defining and expanding the materials genome. Using its proprietary lithography technology, Stoicheia has developed a way to create Megalibraries of nanomaterials on a chip. The company's technology also can be used to combine elements in new ways — already creatingstructures comprising up to seven elements. | $5M | Seed | Jan 27, 2019 |  |
| LunaDNA | Created by co-founders of the $40B DNA sequencing leader Illumina, Luna DNA incentivizes the sharing of health and DNA data for research. LunaDNA rewards people for sharing the data they already own while contributing to medical research and discovery that saves lives.DNA sequencing data has become siloed. As personal DNA sequencing has risen inpopularity, the data has become siloed as each company looks to maximize their individual profit from this data.There is currently little incentive for consumers to contribute their DNA and health information to a third party database.There are also multiple privacy, security, and trust issues that limit broad participation.The solution is LunaDNA. LunaDNA is a community owned database that rewards individuals shares in the database and rewards for contributing their health and DNA data. Shares entitle members to a share in the profits from medical research and discoveries. The proceeds flow back to the community like dividends as researchers pay to access the data for discovery. | $2M |  | May 09, 2018 |  |
| LunaDNA | Created by co-founders of the $40B DNA sequencing leader Illumina, Luna DNA incentivizes the sharing of health and DNA data for research. LunaDNA rewards people for sharing the data they already own while contributing to medical research and discovery that saves lives.DNA sequencing data has become siloed. As personal DNA sequencing has risen inpopularity, the data has become siloed as each company looks to maximize their individual profit from this data.There is currently little incentive for consumers to contribute their DNA and health information to a third party database.There are also multiple privacy, security, and trust issues that limit broad participation.The solution is LunaDNA. LunaDNA is a community owned database that rewards individuals shares in the database and rewards for contributing their health and DNA data. Shares entitle members to a share in the profits from medical research and discoveries. The proceeds flow back to the community like dividends as researchers pay to access the data for discovery. | $2M | Seed | Dec 18, 2017 |  |
| Exicure | Exicure is Formerly Known as AuraSense Therapeuticsis. Exicure is developing a new class of immunomodulatory and gene silencing drugs against validated targets. Our 3-dimensional, spherical nucleic acid (SNA™) architecture unlocks the potential of nucleic acid therapeutics in multiple organs. Our lead programs address diseases from inflammatorydisorders to oncology.SNA constructs overcome one of the most difficult obstacles to nucleic acid therapeutics: safe and effective delivery into cells and tissues. SNA constructs exhibit unparalleled transfection efficiency into numerous cell and tissue types including the skin without carriers or transfection agents. Moreover, SNAs can be used as potent immunotherapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer or infectious disease. | $20M |  | Sep 27, 2017 |  |
| Exicure | Exicure is Formerly Known as AuraSense Therapeuticsis. Exicure is developing a new class of immunomodulatory and gene silencing drugs against validated targets. Our 3-dimensional, spherical nucleic acid (SNA™) architecture unlocks the potential of nucleic acid therapeutics in multiple organs. Our lead programs address diseases from inflammatorydisorders to oncology.SNA constructs overcome one of the most difficult obstacles to nucleic acid therapeutics: safe and effective delivery into cells and tissues. SNA constructs exhibit unparalleled transfection efficiency into numerous cell and tissue types including the skin without carriers or transfection agents. Moreover, SNAs can be used as potent immunotherapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer or infectious disease. | $5.4M | Series B | Dec 21, 2011 |  |

8 of 8 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Northpond Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/northpond-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [ARCH Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/arch-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Illumina Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/illumina-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [AbbVie Biotech Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/abbvie-biotech-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Hemisphere Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hemisphere-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Kairos Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kairos-venture-investments-llc) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Protillion Biosciences

VC Fund · Burlingame, United States

Protillion Biosciences is a biotech company commercializing disruptive technology for therapeutic antibody and drug discovery and accelerating biologic research and development productivity.

3 contacts available at Protillion Biosciences.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Curtis Layton | CEO & Co-Founder | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/curtis-layton-96f9 |
| David R. Walt | Co-Founder and Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/david-r-walt |
| William Greenleaf | Scientific Founder | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/william-greenleaf-f549 |

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## FAQ

### What does David R. Walt invest in?

David R. Walt invests primarily in Biotechnology, Genetics and Life Science startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 8 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is David R. Walt's check size?

David R. Walt typically joins rounds of $2M–$5M at Seed, $18M–$25M at Series A and $5.4M–$37M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds David R. Walt participates in.

### When did David R. Walt last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for David R. Walt closed in Dec 2022. Shizune tracks 8 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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