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Carl T. Wittwer, M.D., Ph.D.

Specialties

  • Flow Cytometry
  • Pathology
  • Pathology, Clinical

Languages

  • English

Bio

Dr. Wittwer is a technical vice president and medical director of Immunologic Flow Cytometry and the Advanced Technology Group at Associated Regional and University Pathologists (ARUP), Salt Lake City, UT. In the early 1990s, he initiated molecular diagnostics at ARUP by forming its first molecular lab and still signs out molecular genetics cases based on high resolution melting. He is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology by the American Board of Pathology.

 In 1990, Dr. Wittwer co-founded BioFire Diagnostics, a company that has now grown to over 400 people and is located in the University of Utah Research Park. He is the primary inventor of the LightCycler® system, with over 10,000 units placed worldwide by Roche and now serves as Chairman of the Board. In 2003, a portable version of the LightCycler, the R.A.P.I.D.® was selected as the real-time PCR platform for military defense against biologic weapons by the US government. Dr. Wittwer holds 33 US patents and their foreign equivalents. He received small business innovation awards in 1999 and 2002, the State of Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology in 2003 and the IQLM Technical Advancement Award in 2005. Since 2003, he has directed the State of Utah Center of Excellence on “Homogeneous DNA Analysis”. The Center focuses on high-resolution DNA melting of PCR products, developing methods for genotyping (unlabeled probes, snapback primers, amplicon melting), mutation scanning, and sequence identity. The FilmArray is a BioFire Product that was FDA approved in 2011 for upper respiratory infection diagnosis. A one-hour sample-to-answer platform that indentifies 20 different respiratory pathogens, it is enjoying rapid commercialization as an easy-to-use, point of impact diagnostic platform. Future panels under development on the FilmArray are designed to identify the causative agents of positive blood cultures, diarrhea, meningitis, and pneumonia and should be FDA approved over the next 4 years.

Locations

Schedule An Appointment Clinical Office Address
(801) 581-2507 University Hospital
Pathology
50 N Medical Dr
Salt Lake City, UT 84132
Map

Board Certification and Academic Information

Academic Departments Pathology - Professor
Academic Divisions Clinical Pathology
Board Certification American Board of Pathology (Anatomic & Clinical)