Scott Berry

Scott Berry is an Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky's Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. His research focuses on applying engineering principles to molecular diagnostics, with particular expertise in wastewater surveillance and circulating tumor cell analysis. Dr. Berry leads the Advanced Diagnostics Lab, where his team develops technologies that increase throughput, reduce operational complexity, and minimize costs of molecular diagnostics while unlocking new analytical capabilities.

Dr. Berry earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (2008), MBA (2007), Master's in Mechanical Engineering (2004), and Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering (2003), all from the University of Louisville. Prior to his current position, he served as Associate Research Scientist (2011-2019) and Postdoctoral Fellow (2009-2011) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 2013, he has also served as Chief Scientific Officer at Salus Discovery LLC.

His research interests span molecular diagnostics, engineering applications in healthcare, wastewater-based epidemiology, and cancer diagnostics. Dr. Berry's work has led to the development of technologies used to analyze over 7,000 clinical samples across various diseases including cancer, HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2. His team has demonstrated that simplification of diagnostic procedures can unlock new analytical capabilities for understanding complex diseases.

Dr. Berry's recent publications (2023-2025) show a strong focus on wastewater surveillance for public health monitoring, with applications extending from SARS-CoV-2 to antimicrobial resistance and substance use trends. His research integrates engineering solutions with molecular biology to create simplified, cost-effective diagnostic platforms suitable for both high-resource and low-resource settings worldwide, including rural Appalachia, Uganda, and Madagascar.

Dr. Berry leads a research team comprising Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and laboratory technicians working on multiple projects including wastewater surveillance for pathogens, development of simplified diagnostic methods using exclusion-based sample preparation (ESP), and analysis of circulating tumor cells for cancer diagnostics. His ESP technology has demonstrated at least 70% decrease in processing time and 40% decrease in consumable usage compared to traditional techniques.