Jim Huntington

Jim Huntington graduated in 1989 from the University of Kansas with bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and mathematics. While an undergraduate, he worked as a research assistant in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department and at the Merck subsidiary InterX conducting chemical synthesis and in vitro and in vivo testing of prodrugs and prodrug-like enhancers of skin permeability. After graduating, he worked as a chemist at Alza Corporation in California for three years evaluating compounds that enhanced the electrotransport of drugs across the skin. He obtained a PhD from Vanderbilt University in 1997 for work on the biophysical characterisation of members of the serpin family of proteins with Peter Gettins. His research on the serpins continued during a postdoc with Robin Carrell at the University of Cambridge, where he used X-ray crystallography to determine the mechanisms of serpin function. He was appointed principal investigator at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in 1999, University Reader in 2007 and Professor of Molecular Haemostasis in 2011. His current research focuses on determining the structures of the molecular engines of blood coagulation, the Xase and prothrombinase complexes, using crystallography and single particle cryo-EM. Over the last four years he has founded several biotech companies, including: XO1 (acquired by Janssen Pharmaceuticals in 2015), SuperX and ReBalance in the field of thrombosis; ApcinteX in haemophilia; Z Factor to treat alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency; and a reagents company, Cambridge ProteinWorks. He is CEO of ApcinteX and Visiting Professor at LaTrobe University.