Dr. James Bellush is a manager of scientific scouting for the Business Development and Licensing team at Weill Cornell Medicine. In this role, he helps to continually expand the pipeline of Weill Cornell innovations by sourcing and developing research projects with high commercial translation potential. Dr. Bellush is also responsible for identifying external funding opportunities, research collaborations and strategic alliances with industry and academic partners.
Prior to joining the Center for Technology Licensing in 2024, Dr. Bellush worked as a venture associate with RTW Investments, a full-life cycle health care investment firm based in New York. In this role, he was responsible for the sourcing, scientific diligence and preclinical development of assets for RTW portfolio companies. Dr. Bellush has drug development experience across a range of therapeutic areas which include cardiovascular, neurological and rare disease.
Dr. Bellush received his doctorate in Molecular Biology from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, where he used genomics approaches to study how chromatin structure influences DNA replication and transcription dynamics during C. elegans embryogenesis (lab of Dr. Iestyn Whitehouse, Memorial Sloan Kettering). He holds a B.S. in Biology from Moravian University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
