Dan Wattendorf is the Director of the Accelerator at the Gates Foundation and leads the Activator Unit, focused on exploring, testing, and creating new concepts and technologies and establishing private sector entities to advance these new solutions.
Prior to joining the foundation in 2016, Dan was program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he initiated and led programs in rapid diagnostics, mammalian cell synthetic biology, RNA vaccines, rapid discovery of monoclonal antibodies, immunoprophylaxis by gene transfer, and engineered red blood cells.
Previously, Dan has served as a Director for the Air Force Medical Genetics Center, Director of the Cancer Genetics Service at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and was a clinician in the Cancer Genetics Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH).
