Dr. Tilla S. Worgall obtained an MD and PhD degree at the University of Heidelberg Germany in 1991, completed residency in Internal Medicine and came to Columbia University in 1995 as a post‐doc focusing on lipid biology. After residency at Columbia University in Pathology she joined the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology in 2005 as faculty. She is the PI of a research lab and has a
clinical appointment in laboratory medicine. She is a former director of biochemical genetics and currently the medical director of the protein electrophoresis laboratory. Her basic research focuses on sphingolipid biology. Her clinical research focuses on the validation of aptamers for clinical diagnostics.

She is a co‐inventor, with colleagues from Columbia, of aptamer technology for detection of small molecules that enables rapid and accurate quantification of small molecules in a point of care format. The first application pursued by the start‐up company Aptatek has been the development of a phenylalanine point of care monitor for patients with phenylketonuria. The technology has received
break‐through status from the FDA. The initial development of the technology was supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Columbia Initiative in Personalized Medicine and the Columbia Coulter Initiative.