Bernhard Weigl's Biography

Bernhard Weigl, Director, Center for In-Vitro Diagnostics, Intellectual Ventures/Global Good-Bill Gates Venture Fund

Dr. Bernhard H Weigl is the Director of the Center for In-Vitro Diagnostics at Intellectual Ventures/Global Good (IV/GG) and an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington, Department of Bioengineering. The Global Good unit of Intellectual Ventures is directly funded by Bill Gates.

At IV/GG Dr. Weigl leads work to develop the next generation of highly sensitive diagnostic assays for diseases of relevance in developing countries, including TB, cervical cancer, and malaria. His team has recently demonstrated the most sensitive rapid assay for malaria to date. Previously he led the PATH Diagnostics Group where he oversaw global health diagnostics programs funded by a variety of sources such as NIAID and NIBIB, the Grand Challenges program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, and the PATH Health Innovation Portfolio. He also served as Portfolio Leader for Non-Communicable Disease Diagnostics and as Director of the National Institutes of Health-funded Center for Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Global Health. His current work focuses on diagnostic technology R&D with relevance to Global Health applications including ultra-sensitive strip-based immunoassays, molecular assays in cartridge and digital formats, novel assay formats, and other biotechnology research for low resource settings.

Before joining PATH, both at the University of Washington and at Micronics, Inc. (Redmond, Washington, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America) where he was a scientific cofounder), Dr. Weigl led teams that developed both instrument-based and stand-alone microfluidic medical diagnostic disposables, including the first FDA-approved instrument-free microfluidic test, the ABORhCard®.
His scientific interests include traditional and paper-based microfluidics as well as any assay platform that allows simplification and integration of previously complex assays. As chronic diseases, and especially diabetes, are emerging as a major health threat in developing countries he is now also focusing on their diagnosis, screening, and treatment. Other areas of interest include diagnostics-related health systems topics such as more rational diagnostic algorithms, and evaluation and selection of the most appropriate diagnostic tool for a particular application using metrics beyond sensitivity and specificity. He has led projects across the diagnostics value chain, from invention and proof of principle though product introduction and support.

He received his M.Sc (Mag. rer. nat.) and Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) from Karl-Franzens-University Graz and has completed post-doctoral studies at the University of Southampton and the University of Washington. He has authored more than 130 scientific publications and is an inventor on over 80 US patents and published patent applications.