Annual Adams Lecture featuring David R. Walt

David R. Walt of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University will present the 2024-2025 Adams Lecture on Friday, November 8, 2024 at 3:30 pm in Pharm 3020. A reception located in the second floor atrium of the Pharmacy Building will take place immediately after the lecture.

Bio: David R. Walt is the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Associate Member at the Broad Institute, and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. His lab’s research focuses on creating and using novel technologies to solve unmet clinical diagnostics problems. Walt is the Scientific Founder of Illumina Inc., Quanterix Corp., and has co-founded multiple other life sciences startups including Ultivue, Inc., Arbor Biotechnologies, Sherlock Biosciences, Vizgen, Inc., and Protillion Biosciences. 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 2023 National Academy of Engineering’s Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize and the 2021 Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, a Member of the American Philosophical Society, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and is inducted in the US National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Abstract: "Why Ultrasensitivity Matters for Clinical Diagnosis"

A major challenge for many clinical diagnostic applications is the quantification of low-abundance proteins and other biomolecules in biological fluids. For example, traditional techniques, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), can only measure several hundred proteins in human blood, which is limiting because there are thousands of proteins present at low concentrations that are of potential diagnostic utility.   Single-molecule technologies allow for digital counting of individual protein molecules and have enabled 1000-fold increases in sensitivity over conventional protein detection methods. We have pioneered the development of these technologies that provide for multiplexed measurements with femtomolar sensitivities or below. I will discuss the technologies and describe their application to neurodegenerative disease, cancer, and infectious diseases.