# James E. Summerton

> James Edward Summerton is a scientist and entrepreneur who founded ANTIVIRALS in 1980, the company subsequently renamed AVI BioPharma and Sarepta Therapeutics. He devised the Morpholino structural type in 1985 and developed it with Dwight Weller. In 1997 he founded Gene Tools, a Philomath, Oregon company supplying custom-sequence Morpholinos for research; its public personnel page lists him as manager and chief scientist.

- **Role:** Manager & Chief Scientist at Gene Tools, LLC
- **Organizations:** Gene Tools, LLC, ANTIVIRALS Inc. (subsequently AVI BioPharma and Sarepta Therapeutics), Oregon State University, University of California, Berkeley, Morpholino Therapeutics, LLC
- **Education:** B.S. in Chemistry, Northern Arizona University, Ph.D. in Biochemistry, University of Arizona
- **Known for:** Founded the company that became Sarepta Therapeutics., Devised the Morpholino structural type and developed it with Dwight Weller., Co-inventor with Paul Bartlett on US Patent 4,123,610, issued in 1978.

## Career timeline

- **1969** — Developed his early concept for sequence-specific nucleic-acid targeting while a University of Arizona graduate student.
- **1973** — Completed a University of Arizona biochemistry doctorate, with a dissertation on ribonucleic acid precursor compartmentation in E. coli.
- **1974** — Began full-time experimental work as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley.
- **1978** — US Patent 4,123,610 issued to Summerton and Paul Bartlett on October 31.
- **1978-1980** — Held an assistant professorship in biochemistry and biophysics at Oregon State University.
- **1980** — Founded ANTIVIRALS Inc., later renamed AVI BioPharma and Sarepta Therapeutics.
- **1985** — Devised the Morpholino structural type on January 1, according to his retrospective account.
- **1989** — Developed an improved Morpholino linkage with Dwight Weller.
- **1996** — Transitioned from chairman and CEO to president and chief scientific officer of ANTIVIRALS in January.
- **1997** — Left ANTIVIRALS to found research-tool spin-off Gene Tools, LLC; coauthored a Morpholino design paper with Weller.
- **2000** — Gene Tools began regularly shipping custom-sequence Morpholinos.
- **2005** — Published his Endo-Porter reagent design.
- **2023** — Named among four inventors on a published Morpholino delivery-efficiency patent application.

## Achievements

- Founded the company that became Sarepta Therapeutics.
- Devised the Morpholino structural type and developed it with Dwight Weller.
- Co-inventor with Paul Bartlett on US Patent 4,123,610, issued in 1978.
- Founded Gene Tools to commercialize custom-sequence research Morpholinos.
- Developed Endo-Porter and published its design in 2005.

## Latest updates

- **2023-11** — US20230357763A1, a Morpholino delivery-efficiency application naming Summerton, Yongfu Li, Shan Jiang, and Daniel Bryce Summerton as inventors, was published on November 9.
- **2025-07** — Coauthored a Research Square preprint posted July 10, with an affiliation to Morpholino Therapeutics, LLC. The manuscript is a preprint, not peer-reviewed publication.

## Links

- Website: https://www.gene-tools.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-summerton-02746b119

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/james-summerton
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-23