James joined Mirati in 2013 as Chief Scientific Officer. In his role, James has been responsible for drug discovery, early clinical development and translational research, drug manufacturing and companion diagnostics. At Mirati, James has led activities related to the discovery and advancement of the company’s clinical and preclinical programs, including adagrasib (KRAS G12C selective inhibitor), MRTX1133 (KRAS G12D selective inhibitor) and MRTX1719 (MTA-cooperative PRMT5 inhibitor).

Prior to Mirati, James was the head of Oncology Precision Medicine and a member of the executive leadership team in the Oncology Research Unit at Pfizer. He joined Pfizer in 2003, and his responsibilities included leading oncology nonclinical research and translational sciences for programs including Sutent* and Xalkori.*

Prior to Pfizer, James held positions at SUGEN/Pharmacia as a Group Leader on the Preclinical Research and Exploratory Development team. He began his industry experience at Warner Lambert/Parke-Davis.

James has authored or co-authored over 170 peer-reviewed research articles in scientific journals including Science, Nature, Cancer Cell, Cancer Discovery, New England Journal of Medicine and many others. In addition, he also participates on the editorial boards for Cancer Research and Molecular Cancer Therapeutics and is a member of the Board of Directors at Boundless Bio.

James received his Ph.D. at North Carolina State University and his B.S. in biology from Northern Illinois University.