David R. Walt

[2] He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he worked with George M. Whitesides on enzyme-catalyzed organic synthesis.

His laboratory made contributions that led to new sensing chemistries and multiple applications of sensors to clinical, environmental and process control.

[5] Over the next several years, Walt and colleagues demonstrated multianalyte sensing using this approach, culminating in a DNA microarray based on optical fibers.

[6] The random bead[7] array technology was licensed to a venture-backed startup, Illumina, Inc., in 1998 to develop next-generation genotyping and sequencing instrumentation.

This effort helped pave the road to multiple biochemistry discoveries by observing individual molecules instead of population averages.

Since moving to Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Walt’s laboratory has been focused on developing and applying new biomarker assay technologies to unmet clinical needs including early detection of breast cancer,[11] detection of active tuberculosis and other infectious diseases,[12] diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases,[13] prediction of immunotherapy response for cancer, and the early diagnostics of depression and Alzheimer's disease, work that has been featured in the Harvard University Gazette.

[22] In addition, Walt's work on long COVID has been featured on National Public Radio,[23] The Boston Globe,[24] and the Harvard Gazette.