Cain McClary

Cain McClary, MD is the founder and Managing Partner of KdT Ventures. A native of Nashville, TN, Cain received his Sc.B. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Brown University in 2007. During his undergraduate studies, Cain studied proteins involved in the development of appendages, both in the labs of Dr. Kristi Wharton at Brown University and Dr. Fred Kaplan at the University of Pennsylvania.

Following Brown, Cain went on to receive his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in 2012. During medical school, Cain also spent a year at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute “Cloister” Fellowship, where he studied the role of non-coding RNA in cancer at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the lab of Dr. Curtis Harris.

Immediately following medical school, Dr. McClary underwent residency training in anatomic pathology at Stanford University, where during his final year, he was named Chief Resident. While in residency, Dr. McClary discovered[1] [2] a genetic mutation in a rare jaw tumor, ameloblastoma. This discovery subsequently led to a successful phase IV clinical trial of BRAF inhibitors in ameloblastoma, a condition where previously surgery was the only option. Due to this success, Dr. McClary was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University, becoming the youngest person on faculty in pathology at the time. He has won several notable awards, spoken at universities and national conferences, and published more than 10 peer reviewed articles.

Most recently, prior to the founding of KdT Ventures, Cain was the lead pathologist, analytics and data science clinical thought leader, and staff physician for Grand Rounds, a San Francisco, CA based digital health company focused on objectively quantifying physician quality for large self-insured employers. During his time at Grand Rounds, Cain developed the pathology program to support over 2 million lives, negotiated several high impact academic and employer relationships, and helped to lead the training team for all onboarding physicians.

Over the past 10 years, Cain has been at the forefront of the intersection between technology and science/medicine. In addition to personal investments in this space with outsized returns, including companies like Zymergen, Firefly Bioworks (Acquired by AbCam), Concert Genetics, and PathAI, Cain has been an active advisor to both companies and institutional investors (i.e. Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Innovation Endeavors, NueCura Partners, Cleargenes, HealthSpek, etc…), with contributions ranging from scientific thesis development all the way to monetization of product/company. Additionally, Cain is involved in entrepreneurship and finance advisory at both the local (Mentor at the Economic Development Center of Asheville/Venture Asheville) and national levels (Finance Committee Member of the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology) as well as on the faculty at the Tulane University School of Medicine.