Patrick Soon-shiong

Biography

    Dr. Soon-Shiong, is a physician, surgeon, scientist and inventor who has pioneered revolutionary new treatments for diabetes and cancer. He is a named inventor on more than 50 patents and the author of more than 100 scientific papers. Dr. Soon-Shiong developed the first encapsulated islet cell transplantation treatment for diabetes and the first nanoparticle albumin-bound FDA-approved oncology drug. He is the founder and former chief executive officer of two NASDAQ-listed, multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Soon-Shiong’s research has been recognized by national and international awards such as the Association for Academic Surgery Award for Research, the American College of Surgeons Schering Scholar, the Royal College Physicians and Surgeons Research Award, the Peter Kiewit Distinguished Membership in Medicine Award, and the International J.W. Hyatt Award for Service to Mankind. Dr. Soon-Shiong received the 2006 Gilda Club Award for the advancement of cancer medicine and is a recipient of a 2007 Ellis Island Medal of Honor as well as the St. Mary Medical Center Life Achievement Award in 2007 and the St. John’s Health Center Caritas Award in 2007.  In 2008, he received the Medical Visionary Award from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network for his work in pancreatic cancer. In 2009, he was appointed to the President’s Council at RAND Corporation, Chairman of the Steering Committee of Life Sciences of the X-Prize Foundation and Founding Board member to Dossia Foundation. In 2010, Dr. Soon-Shiong was awarded the National Library of Medicine’s 2010 Distinguished Medical Science Award. Dr. Soon-Shiong heads the non-profit Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Advanced Health (CSS Institute), which announced in July 2011 that it had taken over responsibility for National LambdaRail, a non-profit high performance 12,000 mile fiber optic communications network linking leading research institutions throughout the United States to support big science projects.  The CSS Institute is in the process of connecting medical research centers, sequencing centers and hospitals to this national network, to create a national health information infrastructure. In 2011 he founded NantWorks, a company  with the goal of revolutionizing three industries–health care, digital entertainment and commerce–using science, supercomputing, voice recognition and low-power semiconductors. The company is working on new cancer therapies. It is also working on an app that gives doctors access to scientific research and information on a patient’s DNA. Dr. Soon-Shiong and his wife, Michele B. Chan, were among the first Americans to join with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in taking the Giving Pledge.  As a member of the Giving Pledge, Dr. Soon-Shiong’s donations include $5 million to the University of Chicago to develop technology to improve patient care and $136 million to St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Dr. Soon-Shiong holds a M.S. from the University of British Columbia and a degree in Medicine from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.  

Research Interest

 Clinical Diagnosis and Research