Professor James Swartz

Professor Swartz received his first lessons in resourcefulness and persistence growing up on a farm in South Dakota. After earning a BS in Chemical Engineering with Highest Honors from S. Dak. School of Mines and Technology, he began his professional career with Union Oil Co. of CA in Casper, Wyoming. 

 

Brief professional history:

•  Eli Lilly- participated in the development of the first recombinant DNA pharmaceutical to be approved, rDNA insulin. 

• Worked 17 years at Genentech to help establish their drug production capability, developing the fermentation process for their first product, rDNA growth hormone.

• Stanford Chemical Engineering Department with a focus on an embryonic technology called cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS). 

• Founding of Sutro Biopharma (NASDAQ: STRO) which now has four promising anti-cancer drugs in clinical trials. 

• A new company called Vaxcyte (NASDAQ: PCVX) later spun out of Sutro to focus on complex human vaccines enabled by CFPS. Both companies are now publicly traded. 

• Another company, GreenLight Biosciences, is focusing on inexpensive, large scale RNA production for use against agricultural pests, and is in the process of becoming a public company.

 

Continued Research

At Stanford, Professor Swartz is now focusing on expanding the basic capabilities of cell-free bioprocess while also developing technologies for targeted drug development, vaccines, circulating tumor cell assays, the carbon negative production of commodity biochemicals, and for economically attractive photosynthetic hydrogen production.

 

Education

BS, S. Dak. School of Mines and Technology, Chemical Engineering (1971)

MS, MIT, Chemical Engineering (1975)

ScD, MIT, Biochemical Engineering (1978)