The Long Way Around: How Dr. James Parrett Became UTRF Memphis’s New Vice President

Dr. James Parrett, VP of UTRF's Memphis office, oversees technology transfer and commercialization activities for innovators across the UT Health Sciences, UT Martin and UT Southern campuses.

"My background is a little atypical of how people do things," says James Parrett, PharmD, JD, and it's hard to argue. Chemist, patent litigator, pharmacist, technology transfer manager: Dr. Parrett has worn all four hats on his way to a fifth. This July, he became vice president of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation's Memphis Office.

The UTRF Board voted in May to promote Dr. Parrett from interim to the permanent role. He now oversees technology transfer and commercialization for innovators across UT Health Sciences, UT Martin and UT Southern, while continuing in select cases to serve as legal counsel, a dual role that reflects the breadth of his experience.

"I'm so pleased to have James as the vice president of UTRF's Memphis office," said UTRF President and CEO Maha Krishnamurthy. "James brings more than 10 years of technology transfer experience and is a highly service-oriented, respected and trusted colleague. Faculty and staff value working with him, and I have consistently received positive feedback about his performance and professionalism."

From the Lab Bench to the Courtroom

Dr. Parrett's path began with a chemistry and biology degree from James Madison University, followed by a job at a small immunological testing startup (four employees, one lab) running robotic assays to screen pharmaceutical drugs for adverse reactions. "It was really interesting to see how small business starts and how faculty can do that," he says.

A couple years in, he moved on to law school at the College of William & Mary, drawn by the well-worn pipeline from science into intellectual property. "Lots of law schools are very excited to bring in people with science backgrounds," he explains, "because they think that's going to give a pathway straight into intellectual property."

During the recruiting process, which he compares to speed dating and "trying to find a good match," he connected with Morris Nichols, a Wilmington, Delaware, firm with an active patent litigation practice. "I really clicked. I really liked what they were doing," he says. He signed on after his summer associate stint and stayed eight years.

The Itch to Go Back to School

Eventually, Dr. Parrett decided partnership wasn't for him. "I got the itch to go back to school. I can't help that," he says. "Maybe it's because I'm married to a professor, I don't know. One toe is always in the water in the academic world."

When his wife took a faculty job at the University of Mississippi, Dr. Parrett enrolled there too, studying medicinal chemistry and pharmacy administration. After sitting in on classes with PharmD students, he decided to join that program as well. "After a protracted six years at the University of Mississippi, I finally graduated with three new degrees," he says.

From there, he did something few patent litigators ever do. He went to work behind a pharmacy counter.

Dr. Parrett spent about a year as a pharmacist at Walgreens, an experience he describes as a revelation of sorts. As a litigator, he had seen the legal consequences of pharmaceutical disputes but never the human ones, never the patients on the receiving end of the drugs he argued about in court. Walgreens gave him that missing half of the picture. (He still works there part-time, once a month, as a relief pharmacist).

Finding Tech Transfer

Looking for "a little bit more to challenge" himself, Dr. Parrett took a technology manager role at the University of Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus, work he'd first sampled briefly at the University of Mississippi. "I've been very blessed in my career to have a lot of great opportunities," he says of the run.

Wanting to be closer to his wife, still in Mississippi, he moved to UTRF's Memphis office in early 2021. He describes the move as "one of those COVID transfers that many people did at the time. I joined sight unseen, and it's worked out pretty well so far."

He was promoted from technology manager to staff attorney in 2022, and in five and a half years has "gotten to work on a lot of great technologies, meet a lot of great people and do a lot of great things."

More Than a Patent Shop

In addition to Dr. Parrett, the staff at the UTRF Memphis office includes Tulika Rastogi, assistant technology manager, left, and Tinieka Thrailkill, intellectual property paralegal.

Ask Dr. Parrett what he wishes UT Health Sciences researchers understood better about UTRF, and he doesn't hesitate: "I wish that they knew that we were much more than just a patent shop."

Beyond filing patents, the office helps form faculty startup companies, negotiates material transfer agreements and CDAs and increasingly supports faculty on grant writing since, as Dr. Parrett puts it, "grants are increasingly looking for a commercialization impact sort of focus. They are also the lifeblood of what we do here."

Asked for a favorite memory from his time at UTRF, he points instead to the culture. "Everyone's got an open door, and it's really easy to go walk and talk to anybody," he says. "We're working on some really important stuff, and I think we're making a difference."

It's a fitting line from someone whose own career has been less a straight line than a string of open doors, and who now steps into UTRF's top Memphis role carrying all of them with him.