ST. LOUIS – BioSTL, the nonprofit backbone of St. Louis’ bioscience innovation economy, today named a well-known leader in the region’s bioscience industry to drive the organization’s new investments in bioscience innovation.
James McCarter M.D., Ph.D., has been named Senior Vice President and leader of BioSTL’s investment arm, BioGenerator Ventures as Senior Managing Director. Dr. McCarter will head the investment team and oversee the building of new ventures in bioscience innovation for the region, BioSTL CEO and President Donn Rubin announced.
“Jim brings deep and relevant experience as entrepreneur, investor, and industry leader
— across St. Louis’ bioscience strengths in medicine, healthcare, and agritech,” Rubin said. “He is well positioned to help BioSTL elevate St. Louis’ leadership in solving important challenges in human health and agriculture.”
“It’s an honor to have the opportunity to give back to the St. Louis innovation ecosystem that supported me, an ecosystem that has grown and matured enormously since I began as an entrepreneur in the late 1990s,” Dr. McCarter said.
Most recently, Dr. McCarter led medical and clinical affairs at Abbott Laboratories, where he headed Abbott’s California-based Lingo consumer biowearables division. At Abbott,
Dr. McCarter contributed to the development of innovative molecular biosensors aimed at health and wellness opportunities, including Abbott’s first continuous glucose meter available over the counter.
Prior to Abbott, Dr. McCarter led research and clinical operations for Virta Health, a tech-enabled medical provider. He directed the Virta clinical trial that proved type 2 diabetes reversal at scale without medication or surgery, resulting in changes to the American Diabetes Association's 2019 standards of care and creating a paradigm shift in diabetes treatment.
Earlier in his career, Dr. McCarter founded the St. Louis-based startup Divergence, Inc., a pioneer in the application of genomics, bioinformatics, and cheminformatics in agriculture and infectious disease. The company’s discoveries led to products in crop protection and veterinary diagnostics. After the 2011 acquisition of Divergence by Monsanto, Dr. McCarter joined the company’s venture arm, Monsanto Growth Ventures. He later served as Senior Entrepreneur in Residence for the BioGenerator, where he mentored entrepreneurs and evaluated investment opportunities.
“Jim embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship that fuels our community, and I am excited to have him as a partner in BioSTL’s work building a world class innovation economy right here in St. Louis,” Rubin said.
Dr. McCarter has been affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine for 25 years, including 12 years as an adjunct professor in the Department of Genetics, where he advised the university on innovation and entrepreneurship and led the world’s largest genomics project for parasitic nematodes affecting humans, animals, and plants.
Dr. McCarter completed his undergraduate studies in biology at Princeton University, his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Washington University in St. Louis, and his post-doctoral training at the Washington University Genome Institute. He is the author of over 70 scientific publications and patents and the founder of Washington University’s Young Scientist Program, which brings high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds into scientific careers.
Outside of his professional career, Dr. McCarter lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife, an anesthesiologist and farmer, and their two sons. A collegiate rower, his hobbies include quantified-self experiments in nutrition and exercise, along with chores for his wife’s farm.
For more information about BioSTL and its initiatives, please visit www.biostl.org.
