James received his Ph.D. in Biology from Duke University where he studied mechanisms of non-genetic inheritance and developmental origins of health and disease in the laboratory of Dr. L. Ryan Baugh. During this time, he demonstrated that early-life starvation results in dysregulation of phosphatidylcholine and eicosanoid metabolism, impinging on the innate immune system, and ultimately influencing susceptibility to adult pathology. Further, he found vitellogenin (yolk) abundance mediated intergenerational resistance to starvation-induced pathology via modification of progeny insulin signaling. In 2021, James was awarded a fellowship from the NIH to conduct postdoctoral work in Dr. Baran Ersoy’s laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical School to elucidate the mechanisms by which novel diet-regulated hepatic transcription factors modulate systemic insulin sensitivity, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activity, and lipid metabolism. Additionally, he hopes to understand how these factors contribute to obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease and how to target them for therapeutic purposes. In his spare time, James plays ice hockey, travels, cooks, and reads.