Dan Wattendorf, director of Innovative Technology Solutions, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Dan Wattendorf, director of Innovative Technology Solutions at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leads efforts to identify and create biotechnology platforms that result in new options for global health and oversees the foundation’s strategy to develop and implement new biomarkers, diagnostic tests, and diagnostic services for the developing world.
Prior to joining the foundation in 2016, Dan was program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he initiated and lead programs in diagnostics, mammalian cell synthetic biology, RNA vaccines, rapid discovery of monoclonal antibodies, immunoprophylaxis by gene transfer, and engineered red blood cells.
Previously, he served as director, Air Force Medical Genetics Center, director of the cancer genetics center at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and was a clinician in the Cancer Genetics Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH.
Dan holds a B.S. in microbiology from Cornell University and an M.D. with distinction from George Washington University. He completed a residency in family medicine at the National Capital Consortium; a residency in clinical genetics at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), National Institutes of Health (NIH); a fellowship in clinical cytogenetics at Georgetown University; and a fellowship in health policy from the Office of the Director, NHGRI, NIH.
He has been a member of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Genomic Medicine Program Advisory Committee and the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Translating Genomic-Based Research for Health.