Kim D. Janda is an American chemist and professor at Scripps Research, where he holds the Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Chair in Chemistry and directs the Worm Institute for Research and Medicine (WIRM). His research integrates chemistry and biology to address challenges in immunology, drug addiction, infectious diseases, and neglected tropical diseases, and he has made pioneering contributions to immunopharmacotherapy and vaccine development.

Janda earned a B.S. in clinical chemistry from the University of South Florida in 1980, followed by an M.S. in organic chemistry in 1983 and a Ph.D. in organic and medicinal chemistry in 1984, both from the University of Arizona. He began his academic career as a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic in 1985, advancing through positions to become an associate professor in molecular biology and chemistry by 1991, and a full professor in chemistry since 1996. He also holds joint appointments in the Department of Immunology and Microbial Science since 2005 and serves as a Skaggs Scholar in the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology.

Janda’s laboratory focuses on merging chemical synthesis with biological applications, including the creation of combinatorial chemical libraries, catalytic antibodies, enzyme inhibitors, and phage display technologies. Key research areas encompass methods for detecting and protecting against chemical and biological warfare agents, solid-phase organic synthesis, and strategies to combat drug addiction through vaccines targeting substances like heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl. Additional efforts target cancer therapies, obesity prevention, neglected tropical diseases, and bacterial quorum-sensing inhibition.

Among his notable achievements, Janda has co-authored over 700 publications, including influential works on opioid conjugate vaccines that ablate lethal doses of fentanyl-class drugs and engineered antibodies reversing carfentanil-induced respiratory depression. He has received prestigious awards such as the 1990 NIH FIRST Award, the 1999 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS), the 2017 Alfred Bader Award in Bioorganic Chemistry, and the 2019 Portoghese Lectureship Award from the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry.