Dr. James (Jim) Baker, CEO of FARE, has more than 30 years of experience in basic biologic research, concentrating in immunology and host defense both at the University of Michigan and in industry as vice president for vaccine development at Merck, Inc. He completed his undergraduate education at Williams College in Williamstown, MA and his medical education at Loyola-Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, IL. After an internship and internal medicine residency at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., he completed an Allergy and Clinical Immunology Fellowship, also at Walter Reed and at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, MD.

His long-standing research in immunology has helped define the basis of several autoimmune diseases. He has become an internationally recognized expert in nanotechnology, nanomolecular materials in biomedical applications and the emerging field of nanomedicine. His work with synthetic lipid and polymeric nanostructures has resulted in the development of a new class of antimicrobial agents with activity against bacteria, spores, fungi and viruses. This technology is being further developed as a needle-free, nasal spray adjuvant vaccine technology for Influenza, Hepatitis B, pneumococcal, and RSV. This work resulted in a start-up company, NanoBio Corp., in Ann Arbor, MI. He then spent three years as the Senior Vice President and Global Head of Vaccines at Merck.

For more than 20 years, Baker was the Ruth Dow Doan Professor and chief of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Michigan, where he started the Food Allergy Research Center. He retains his professorship and serves in an emeritus capacity at the University.