LA Times - The Science Behind the Coronavirus, Series II

[BootinUp]

In this second installment of our “The Science Behind the Coronavirus” series, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the executive chairman of the Los Angeles Times, continues his examination of the ways the scientific community is taking up the battle against COVID-19.

Soon-Shiong (MD, MBBCh, MSc, FRCS (C), FACS) begins his presentation with a warning: The virus is continuing to mutate and is here to stay. But, Soon-Shiong adds, there is hope. Over an introduction and six parts, Soon-Shiong explains how scientists around the world are considering treating patients suffering from stages of COVID-19.

Finally, Soon-Shiong breaks down the medical concepts researchers are pondering as they search for a vaccine. Soon-Shiong is a surgeon and scientist who has spent his career studying the human immune system to fight cancer and infectious diseases. He is also the chairman and chief executive of NantWorks and the owner of or investor in a number of companies, including ImmunityBio and NantKwest, which are currently researching immunotherapies for COVID-19.

[dalton99a]

1. Remarkable guy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Soon-Shiong

Soon-Shiong was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to Chinese immigrant parents, who fled from China during the Japanese occupation in World War II.[9][10] His parents were originally from Toisan in Guangdong province.[10][9] His ancestral surname is Wong (Huang 黃 ).[10]

Soon-Shiong graduated 4th out of his class of 189 from the University of Witwatersrand, receiving a bachelor's degree in medicine (MBBCh) at age 23.[11] He completed his medical internship at Johannesburg's General Hospital.[12] He then studied at the University of British Columbia, where he earned a master's degree in 1979,[13] with research awards from the American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the American Association of Academic Surgery.[14]

He moved to the United States and began surgical training at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and became a board-certified surgeon in 1984.[15] Soon-Shiong is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada) and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.[14][3]

Soon-Shiong joined UCLA Medical School in 1983 and served on that faculty until 1991,[16][3] as a transplant surgeon.[9] Between 1984 and 1987, he served as an associate investigator at the Center for Ulcer Research and Education.[3] Soon-Shiong performed the first whole-pancreas transplant done at UCLA,[17][18] and he developed and first performed the experimental Type 1 diabetes-treatment known as encapsulated-human-islet transplant, and the "first pig-to-man islet-cell transplant in diabetic patients."[17] After a period in industry, he returned to UCLA in 2009, serving as a professor of microbiology, immunology, molecular genetics and bioengineering until this date. Soon-Shiong served as a visiting professor at Imperial College, London, in 2011.[19]

In 1991, Soon-Shiong left UCLA to start a diabetes and cancer biotechnology firm called VivoRx Inc. This led to the founding in 1997 of APP Pharmaceuticals, of which he held 80% of outstanding stock and sold to Fresenius SE for $4.6 billion in July 2008.[20] Soon-Shiong later founded Abraxis BioScience (maker of the drug, Abraxane, that he invented),[5] a company he sold to Celgene in 2010 in cash-and-stock deal, valued at over $3 billion.[21] ...