Primary Job Title Director of MD &erson's Red & Charline McCombs Institute for the Early Detection & Treatment Primary Organization 
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Location Los Angeles, California, United States Regions Greater Los Angeles Area, West Coast, Western US Gender Male
I was recruited to join MD Anderson in July 2012 to lead the Red and Charline McCombs Institute for Cancer Early Detection and Treatment of Cancer.
My interests and expertise focus on the development and application of integrated approaches for the molecular profiling of cancer, with emphasis on the application of proteomics technologies for
the development of blood based markers to identify subjects at increased risk of developing cancer and markers for early detection of cancer and for tumor classification.
The work involves sorting through tens of thousands of protein forms in the blood most of which occur at exceedingly low abundance to identify those that are most relevant to particular cancer types. I serve as program principal investigator for many multi-investigator projects aimed at discovery and validation of cancer markers.
I led a consortium of investigators working on molecular profiling of lung cancer to identify molecular risk factors for developing lung cancer among smokers as well never smokers that can be used to develop a blood test for lung cancer risk.
Another goal is to develop blood based markers for the early detection of lung cancer. I have also led similar efforts to identify markers for the early detection of other cancers notably breast, ovarian, pancreas and colon.
I pioneered strategies for the discovery of cancer markers which include molecular profiling of blood that was collected one or more years prior to a diagnosis of cancer to determine the changes that can be detected in blood that could be used for assessing risk or for detecting cancer at an early stage.
Another approach pioneered is the use of mouse models of cancer in which cancer causing genes are turned on and blood is collected serially to identify the earliest changes in the blood that occur with tumor development.
Findings from mouse studies are validated using human blood to confirm the relevance of these markers for the early detection of cancer in humans.
