Jim is Principal Investigator on the Wyss Institute Brain Targeting Program. In this role, Jim leads a team developing new approaches to transport drugs and diagnostics through the blood brain barrier (BBB) to the CNS. His current priorities include developing improved antibody shuttles to transport drugs into the brain, expanding the shuttles to transport different payloads, advancing mechanistic understanding and in vitro-in vivo correlation of brain transport assays, and collaborating to incorporate the Wyss shuttles into brain-targeted therapeutics.
Jim worked for 7 years in licensing, acquisitions, portfolio management and strategic initiatives at Abbott Labs (now Abbvie). There, he received the Abbott President’s Award for his role in initiating, championing and executing the 2001 acquisition of the blockbuster anti-TNF antibody Humira®, in 2021 the top-selling drug worldwide, with annual sales of $20.7 billion. Jim formed and led Abbott’s Antibody Strategy Team and then co-chaired the Portfolio Management Committee, initiating and overseeing a process that led to the launch of ten new inflammation and oncology discovery projects. After leaving Abbott, he was CEO and co-founder of two biotech startups. BioAssets Development developed antibody anti-inflammatory therapies for treatment of pain in patients with disk herniation and sciatica, and was acquired by Cephalon. 121 Bio, an immune-oncology company using single domain antibodies for tumor imaging, was acquired by Agenus.
Jim obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard Medical School, where he researched molecular genetics of antibody formation in the lab of Dr. Frederick Alt. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale University.