American Innovator Award

James Dahlberg, a professor emeritus of biomolecular chemistry whose research led to a widely accessible colon cancer screening test used to detect more than 623,000 cancers and precancers in its first decade of commercialization, received the American Innovator Award from the Bayh-Dole coalition in June. Dahlberg’s research at UW–Madison and partnership with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and chemistry professor Lloyd Smith led to the founding of Third Wave Technologies and the rise of Madison-based Exact Sciences.

While studying DNA molecules that fold into shapes other than the now-familiar double helix, Dahlberg found that an enzyme used to make copies of DNA could also cut the unusually shaped DNA strands into pieces. The enzyme, which Dahlberg patented through WARF and named Cleavase, could be used to detect slight genetic differences, like the ones that make a particular variant of cancer more dangerous than others. Third Wave Technologies licensed Cleavase and developed a test for human papillomavirus (HPV), and Exact Sciences then turned the enzyme techniques into a test marketed as Cologuard, which has screened more than 19 million people for the second-most deadly type of cancer.

The Bayh-Dole Coalition celebrates and protects the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act. The law, championed by senators Birch Bayh of Indiana and Bob Dole of Kansas, allows universities and other organizations to capitalize on federally funded research to create consumer products, bolstering the economy and employment and scientific progress.

Read more about James Dahlberg’s award