Jonah Odim, M.D., Ph.D, MBA

Dr. Jonah Odim joined ARPA-H in January 2025 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID). At NIAID, Odim was the Chief of the Clinical Transplantation Section. In this role, he led clinical trial and basic research studies focused on organ transplant and immunobiology. He was the medical officer for the HOPE Act (2013) NIH-sponsored clinical trials in HIV-to-HIV organ transplantation and the NIH contract lead for two National Academies Consensus Reports: Opportunities for Organ Donor Intervention Research (2017) and Realizing the Promise of Equity in the Organ Transplantation System (2022). Previous to his tenure at NIAID, he was an associate professor and cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of California, Los Angeles, growing their pediatric and adult heart and lung transplant programs. 

Odim consults for multiple transplant networks and committees, including panels for the Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Transplantation-American Society of Transplant Surgeons. He earned his medical degree from Yale. After general surgery and surgical critical care training at University of Chicago, Odim completed cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgical fellowships at McGill University. He also earned a doctorate at McGill in experimental surgery, remodeling fatigue-prone skeletal muscle to assist the failing heart and circulation. He has served on the faculty of surgery at Harvard Medical School and completed a congenital heart surgery fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital.