Director, Urologic Research &

The UAB Bioanalytical and Mass Spectrometry Shared Facility

Assistant Professor, Surgery, Pharmacology, & Preventative Medicine

James obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from Oregon State University with focus on spectrochemical analysis in addition to electrochemistry of metal complexes. This work was carried out under the direction of Dr. James Ingle.

He then went on to work in the pharmaceutics industry where his focus was on the chromatographic separation and characterization of small molecules.

James obtained a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology from The Ohio State University with an emphasis on hormonal induced carcinogenesis of the breast. This work was carried out under the direction of Dr. Robert Brueggemeier.

Following his doctorate, James was recruited directly into the Urology Department as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Medical School by Dr. Shuk-Mei Ho. This is where he began work initiating and implementing a biomarker and small molecule discovery lab. His focus was on 1) developing cellular assays for small molecule screening, 2) statistical & preprocessing analysis of MALDI-Tof generated spectra, and 3) developing mass spectrometry driven Top-Down-Directed protein characterization applications.

He then took a position at Vanderbilt University within the lab of Dr. Richard Caprioli, where he learned the finer aspects of mass spectrometry, spectral pre-processing, and tissue imaging mass spectrometry, .

James early and continued focus has been on biomarker & small molecule discovery, with over 20 years experience in separations technologies (nearly 6 years spent in industry), 10 years experience using mass spectrometry, and 7 years in the biomarker discovery field.

James joined the research community at UAB in 2006. His lab format is based on previous research experiences noted above with projects that encompass a number of diseases, and yet focus on early diagnosis, prevention, & treatment.

Finding a Cure Through Discovery Based Sciences

The Director of Research; James A. Mobley, Ph.D.