James is the Commercial Director of DATA-CAN, working to enable patient-approved industry access to cancer data for research.
James has been at the forefront of genetics and data in the UK for some years, since setting up Cancer Research UK’s Stratified Medicine Programme with AstraZeneca and Pfizer, and the parallel Stratified Medicine Innovation Platform with the Technology Strategy Board. He subsequently was a founding partner of Syncona, the Wellcome Trust’s venture capital arm, focussed on UK genetic and data opportunities. He joined Genomics England as first employee and Managing Director of the Main Programme, setting up the sequencing and sample acquisition operations of this national initiative with Illumina and the NHS Genomics Medicine Centres. He then worked in the Precision Medicine and Medicines Discovery Catapults, helping UK SMEs with access to samples and data. James served on the UK’s Human Genomic Strategy Group and the Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Committee. He has extensive experience advising public bodies, industry organisations, pharmaceutical companies and startups on genomics and data in healthcare.
