James D. Otvos, PhD

Dr. Otvos received a Ph.D. in comparative biochemistry from the University of California-Berkeley and postdoctoral training in molecular biophysics at Yale University.  He spent the following 20 years in academia, first on the chemistry faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and then as Professor of Biochemistry at North Carolina State University during which time he developed new technology for measuring lipoprotein particles using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. He then founded LipoScience, Inc. to enable clinical translation of the NMR blood testing technology and served on the Board of Directors and as Chief Scientific Officer overseeing analytical development and clinical research.  Following LabCorp’s acquisition of LipoScience in 2014, Dr. Otvos continues to oversee research devoted to the development of novel NMR metabolomic assays addressing cardiovascular, diabetes, and inflammatory risk in collaboration with many academic, government, and industrial clinical investigators.

Dr. Otvos maintains academic affiliations with NC State University (Adjunct Professor of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Adjunct Professor of Medicine). He has coauthored over 200 scientific publications, is a named inventor on over 20 patents, and has received several research awards from the American Association of Clinical Chemistry as well as the Christopher Columbus Foundation/Discover Magazine award for Technological Innovation.   

Publications

1. High-throughput Citrate Quantification by NMR in the Clinical Laboratory
2. Concentration of branched-chain amino acids is a strong risk marker for incident hypertension
3. Relations of GlycA and lipoprotein particle subspecies with cardiovascular events and mortality: A post hoc analysis of the AIM-HIGH trial
4. The novel inflammatory marker GlycA and the prevalence and progressions of valvular and thoracic aortic calcification: The multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis
5. GlycA, a novel inflammatory marker, and its association with peripheral arterial disease and carotid plaque: The multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis
6. The effects of aerobic, resistance, and combination training on markers of insulin resistance