James Howard

Co-Founder & Member

617-634-3880

Education

University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D.

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Master of Bioethics

University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, Certificate in Business and Public Policy

University of New Hampshire, B.A.

Bar Admission

Massachusetts
New York

About Jim

Bio

Jim is a seasoned transactional attorney with extensive experience structuring, negotiating and executing all manner of complex IP, technology and R&D-related agreements. From 2019 to 2025, Jim was Vice President in the legal group at Sana Biotechnology, where he was responsible for the company’s strategic and technology transactions for the first six years of the company’s operations. Prior to Sana, Jim held a similar transactional role for three years as VP at Juno Therapeutics, and at Celgene Corporation following its acquisition of Juno. He spent the first five years of his legal career in the Life Sciences and IP Transactions practice groups at Ropes & Gray in Boston, following a federal clerkship for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Prior to graduate school, Jim directed a high-risk clinical trial institutional review board (IRB) at the University of Pennsylvania, and he managed a clinical trial program at the University of Utah Department of Neurology. Jim’s undergraduate and postgraduate work in both neuroscience and bioethics has been published in multiple leading journals and encyclopedic volumes (available upon request). He lives in Wenham, MA with his wife and four young children. Like his friend and business partner Seth, Jim grew up in Concord, New Hampshire.

Representative Transactions

The Broad Institute and Harvard in their exclusive CRISPR license to Editas Medicine.
The Broad Institute in its license to Dupont for the use of CRISPR in the agricultural field.
The Broad institute in multiple non-exclusive CRISPR licenses for research tool purposes.
The Broad Institute in its exclusive license agreement re neoantigen technology to Neon Therapeutics (acquired by BioNTech).
Genzyme in its $100 million (up-front) gene therapy collaboration with Voyager Therapeutics.
Genzyme in its $700 million (up-front) RNAi collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.
Juno Therapeutics in its license agreement to JW Therapeutics for the exploitation of CAR-T products in China.
Juno Therapeutics in its cell therapy manufacturing and supply agreement with Lonza.
Juno Therapeutics in its license agreement with Trianni regarding humanized mouse models.
Juno Therapeutics in its license agreement with Life Technologies regarding cell therapy manufacturing technology.
Juno Therapeutics in its license agreement with Eli Lilly regarding gamma secretase inhibitors.
Juno Therapeutics in its exclusive license agreement with OncoTracker regarding gamma secretase inhibitors.
Juno Therapeutics in its license agreement with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center regarding BCMA CAR-T with gamma secretase inhibitor.
Juno Therapeutics in numerous non-public license agreements, manufacturing and supply agreements, and sponsored research agreements with academic and non-profit research institutions.
Pfizer in multiple small molecule license and collaboration agreements.
Sana Biotechnology in its license agreement with Beam Therapeutics regarding Cas12b gene editing technology.
Sana Biotechnology in its exclusive license agreement with Harvard regarding hypoimmune cell therapy technology.
Sana Biotechnology in multiple exclusive license agreements with Washington University regarding hypoimmune and bet islet cell therapy technology.
Sana Biotechnology in its exclusive license agreement with the University of Rochester regarding central nervous system cell therapy technology.
Sana Biotechnology in its exclusive license agreement with the University of Washington (Chuck Murray Lab) regarding cardiac cell therapy technology.
Sana Biotechnology in its exclusive license agreement with the University of Washington (David Baker Lab) regarding LOCKR protein design technology.
Sana Biotechnology in its exclusive license agreement with UCLA regarding certain gene therapy technology.
Sana Biotechnology in its license agreement with FujiFilm Cellular Dynamics regarding iPSC cell lines.
Sana Biotechnology in its license agreement with MaxCyte regarding cell therapy manufacturing.
Sana Biotechnology in numerous non-public license agreements, manufacturing and supply agreements, and sponsored research agreements with academic and non-profit research institutions.