James Audia's Biography

James Audia, Chief Scientific Officer, Constellation Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Jim Audia joined Constellation in January 2011 following a highly productive career in drug discovery at Eli Lilly and Company. Dr. Audia held several key leadership roles during his 23-year tenure at Lilly. As a Distinguished Lilly Scholar, the highest level of the company’s scientific ladder, he made seminal technical and strategic contributions to the Lilly drug pipeline. Prior to this role, Dr. Audia was Executive Director, Discovery Chemistry Research and Technologies, where he had global responsibility for delivery of small molecule drug candidates across all therapeutic areas. He also played a major role in companywide leadership of product strategy and portfolio management for Lilly for more than a decade. Over the course of his career, Dr. Audia’s scientific work has contributed to more than 12 development candidates, including transformative contributions to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease through his discovery of both the first gamma secretase inhibitor and an industry-leading beta secretase inhibitor. Dr. Audia is a named inventor on more than 90 issued US patents and has published and presented extensively. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of South Carolina and did postdoctoral training at Yale University before joining Lilly.