James “Jim” Wells focuses on understanding and modulating signaling processes in human cells through protein and small molecule design. His lab seeks activators as well as inhibitors of signaling molecules, including proteases and kinases, and uses them to study the consequences of triggering specific nodes of signaling circuits. He is especially interested in the inter-protein circuitry of pathways involved in cell death and inflammation, and the intra-protein allosteric circuitry that governs how distant functional sites in one protein communicate.