Kevin Grimes, MD, MBA
Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology, Co-director of the SPARK Program, Stanford University
Kevin Grimes is a Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and the Co-director of the SPARK Program in Translational Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After seven years as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford, Grimes received a Hartford Foundation Fellowship to study health economics and obtained an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was subsequently selected as a White House Fellow and assigned to the Department of Defense, where he served as Special Assistant to the Secretary. He spent fifteen years in industry, working in the medical device, life science consulting, and biotechnology sectors prior to returning to Stanford to co-direct SPARK. SPARK’s three-fold mission is to advance promising research discoveries into the clinic as new therapeutics and diagnostics; to educate faculty, post-doctoral fellows and students regarding the translational process; and to identify and promote more efficient approaches to bring new therapies to patients. Over 50% of projects completing SPARK have been licensed and/or advanced to clinical trials. SPARK has received the Xconomy Ecosystem Development Award and the Cures within Reach Patient Impact Award. The SPARK methodology has been adopted by over 50 academic institutions throughout the world in a SPARK Global network that facilitates collaborative translational research on important medical issues. Grimes teaches graduate student courses on drug discovery and development and continues to teach and practice internal medicine. He has received the David Rytand Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching and the Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching.