Dr. James Ryan

About Dr. James Ryan

Jimmy Ryan is a molecular biologist who lives in Vero Beach, Florida. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a BS in biology (1994), BA in chemistry (1995) and a BA in physics (1995), all with honors. He graduated with a PhD in the department of Neuroscience and Physiology from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2001 and followed that with a Post Doc appointment at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine.

He has published over 30 peer reviewed papers, mostly in the field of genomics, and two book chapters. In 2003 he began working in the Marine Biotoxins Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where for 8 years he studied gene expression in cell culture and mouse models after exposure to marine algal toxins, such as brevetoxin, ciguatoxin, azaspiracid and domoic acid.

Back in 2007, while studying the effects of the powerful neurotoxin ciguatoxin, produced by marine dinoflagellates, Jimmy brought the results to his branch chief to share some interesting findings. After puzzling over the results for a few minutes, his boss told Jimmy he felt like he had seen something very similar before, and he had. It was just a year earlier that he had met Ritchie Shoemaker, when Ritchie had given a talk on his latest findings and a novel flow chart of pathology he called the “Biotoxin Pathway”. After sharing a conversation about the effects of ciguatoxins, Ritchie and Jimmy started a collaborative effort. In 2010 they published their first paper together, Defining the neurotoxin derived illness chronic ciguatera using markers of chronic systemic inflammatory disturbances: A case/control study.

This started the ball rolling and soon after, Jimmy joined Ritchie in studying the gene expression abnormalities in patients with CIRS. In 2011 the pair formed a new venture they called Progene DX, a company designed to identify CIRS pathology down to the level of the genome itself, by using gene expression to study the roots of the pathology. After 10 years of genomic research, starting with microarrays, then to RNA-Seq, now to digital gene expression profiling, Ritchie and Jimmy have developed GENIE. A focused assay that reveals gene expression abnormalities found most often in patients facing CIRS illnesses.