Tom has earned an international reputation for his scientific discoveries. He has been invited to lecture around the world, in Brussels, Siena, Budapest, San Francisco, Cambridge England, and Jerusalem, among other places.

His discoveries include two fundamental molecular biology breakthroughs, cloning of a critical hormone of the immune system, and contributions to evolutionary biology.

THE FLAG EPITOPE. Molecular biologists and genetic engineers throughout the world rely on a technique originated by Dr. Hopp: the epitope tagging procedure. When Tom and his colleagues at Immunex Corporation set out in 1983 to create what would prove to be one of the most useful and widely applied techniques in the field, no one had ever heard of the concept. Today, many labs use the technique in virtually every field of science and medicine, without knowing who originated it. More.

HYDROPHILICITY ANALYSIS. Tom's first scientific breakthrough occurred while he was still in graduate school at Cornell Medical College. He originated the concept that the hydrophilic/hydrophobic nature of amino acid building blocks of proteins could be analyzed for valuable practical applications in the field of molecular biology and medicine. Since then, scientists throughout the world have routinely utilized Tom's hydropathic plotting method or the procedure of Kyte and Doolittle, who took their idea from Tom. More.

INTERLEUKIN 1. Tom led a team of 30 Immunex scientists in a race to clone Interleukin 1 before teams in other companies around the world could beat him to the punch. Teams in the U.S. and Japan succeeded in cloning IL-1, but Tom's group outdid them, cloning two separate genes for IL-1, and discovering an entirely new biological mechanism for protein hormone secretion, the caspase activation system. Controversy dogged Tom's steps, as competing companies sued Immunex over who made the discoveries first, with $164 million in the balance. More.

BIRD EVOLUTION. Tom stepped into another scientific controversy when he proposed that the small dinosaurian ancestors of birds evolved wing feathers, not to fly, but to brood their young. Flying, according to his theory, came later. More.

CURRENT SCIENCE. Tom's position as Vice President of Research and Development for CG Therapeutics, Inc. has brought him into a new realm of scientific drama. In a time when cancer vaccines are frowned upon by the pharmaceutical industry, Tom is leading the scientific charge to gain FDA approval for a vaccine to counteract the deadly effects of the hormone, hCG, in cancer. hCG is the pregnancy hormone that turns the test kit positive. While hCG brings the joy of birth, it has a dark side in cancer. Just like human embryos, cancer cells need to grow and avoid being rejected by the immune system of their host. CGT's new vaccine counteracts these effects of hCG in cancer patients, blocking the ability of tumors to grow and spread. Despite the inherent logic of CGT's plans, the pharmaceutical industry and venture capitalists have so far been unable to bring themselves to invest sufficient money for Tom to see this new vaccine into the clinic for testing in cancer patients. But Tom has weathered stiff resistance in the past and intends to do so again, until this vaccine is approved by the FDA and available to benefit cancer sufferers worldwide.