Jonathan Arm

Jonathan Arm leads the Translational Sciences team, supporting the accelerated translation of a broad portfolio of global health interventions into the clinic, including drugs, vaccines, biologics, devices, and microbiome and nutritional interventions.

Jonathan received his undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and his medical training at The London Hospital Medical School in the UK. He trained in Internal Medicine in the Royal Air Force and in Allergy and Immunology at Guy’s Hospital, London. He was appointed to the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1993 where he ran a basic research laboratory funded by the National Institutes of Health, saw patients with allergies and asthma, and was intimately involved in the training program in Allergy and Immunology. His research focused on the regulation of eicosanoid generation; elucidating the varied functions of phospholipase A2; and characterization of human Leukocyte Immunoglobulin-Like Receptors. He was promoted to associate professor of Medicine in 2004 and was appointed director of the training program in Allergy and Immunology in 2008.

Jonathan left the academic world in April 2009 to join the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research as a translational medicine expert where he was responsible for the design and conduct of phase I and early phase II studies in asthma and allergic disease. He moved to Basel in May 2013 to lead the Translational Research program in Autoimmunity, Transplantation and Inflammation. In October 2014 he was appointed translational medicine head for Autoimmunity, Transplantation and Inflammation, leading a group of 10 to 12 physicians and physician-scientists responsible for early drug development (phase I and phase 2a clinical trials) in autoimmunity, transplantation and dermatology. He joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in June 2017.

He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK) and of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. He is married with three grown children. He loves to cook, and when time and weather permit, he enjoys cycling.