2017 Inductee

Robert Bargatze, Ph.D.

Montana BioScience Alliance
Founder, Immunologist, Norovirus Specialist, Scientific Consultant and former President/Chairman of the Montana BioScience Alliance. 

Dr. Bargatze has had a highly productive career in the research and development of biomedical technologies, first in academia at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation and then at Stanford University and Montana State University, and second moving to the commercial sector with the founding of LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals in Bozeman, MT in 1994. With the acquisition of LigoCyte by Takeda Pharmaceutical in 2012, he was a key player at Takeda Vaccines as U.S. Head, Vaccine Science, and Policy, interacting with Congress, Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Vaccine Program Office.  

Dr. Bargatze testified before the United States Senate’s Economic Policy Subcommittee addressing the issue “Access to Capital: Fostering Job Creation and Innovation through High-Growth Startups in the U.S.” as part of the assessment of the utility of the legislation that became known as the 2012 JOBS Act (Public Law 112-106). He also became the site head of the former LigoCyte, now Takeda, facility in Bozeman where the development of a vaccine to prevent norovirus illness was initiated. 

Dr. Bargatze has engaged in deep research and publication spanning more than four decades. He is an inventor on several U.S. and international patents and has new patent filings under review on vaccine technologies currently in development at Takeda.  He has also received several National Institute of Health SBIR product commercialization grants and multiple Department of Defense contracts for vaccine development.  

Dr. Bargatze currently serves on the Scientific Advisory board of Vaccines for Enteric Diseases and on the board of directors of the Montana BioScience Alliance. He has also served on multiple national and state boards in director, reviewer, and advisory roles.  

“As the one organization that has really made a difference in driving biotech expansion in Montana, the Montana BioScience Alliance has achieved this success by providing a unique suite of opportunities and services to the biotech community. This has nurtured and matured the efforts of entrepreneurs, which continues today, resulting in the successful creation of new biotech companies and jobs, allowing our Montana brain trust to grow a high-tech Montana economy. This is a truly successful effort with the very noble intention of providing a path for the creation of new medical interventions Made in Montana to improve human health and the global human condition.” – Dr. Robert Bargatze