David Walt is developing new diagnostics tools and new biomarker assay technologies based on single molecule detection and high-throughput analysis of extracellular vesicles that can address unmet clinical needs in diagnostics. The lab applies these new technologies to the early detection of cancers including breast and ovarian cancers, and diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and ALS. His lab also works on new diagnostic methods for tuberculosis and HIV rebound that can be used in low- and middle-income countries. The lab is deeply involved in understanding Long Covid and is also pursuing fundamental research on single enzyme molecules to provide insight into enzyme mechanisms. He is founder and faculty lead of the Wyss Bioinspired Diagnostics Platform and the Diagnostics Accelerator (Wyss DxA), which work toward the creation of diagnostic technologies to solve high-value clinical problems through deep collaborations between bioengineers, clinicians and industry participants.
David is the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Associate Member at the Broad Institute, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He is the Scientific Founder of Illumina Inc., and Quanterix Corp., and has co-founded multiple other life science startups including Ultivue, Inc., Arbor Biotechnologies, Sherlock Biosciences, Vizgen, Inc., and Protillion Biosciences. David 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 2021 Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine, 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. In 2025, he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Biden.