He was born in rural Vermont and got his B.S. in Biology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He studied mechanisms of RNA transport during his Ph.D. at Brown University. As an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, James developed genome engineering tools for use in the zebrafish. He also dissected the role of pluripotency factors during early embryogenesis. He started his own lab in January 2018. His lab uses CRISPR-Cas9 for genetic recording of events during development. James advocates for open science and contributes to Prelights, a preprint highlight service. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring Utah by foot, by bike or by ski.