I've enjoyed a long and sometimes controversial career in the biotechnology industry, and I've earned an international reputation for some of my scientific breakthroughs. I've been invited to lecture in Brussels, Siena, Budapest, San Francisco, Cambridge and Jerusalem, among other places.

Among my credits are two fundamental molecular biology breakthroughs, cloning of a critical hormone of the immune system, and contributions to evolutionary biology.

THE FLAG EPITOPE. Genetic engineers around the world rely on a technique I originated: the epitope tagging procedure. When my team 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 my "FLAG" tag in virtually every field of science and medicine, and most don't even know who originated the technique. More.

HYDROPHILICITY ANALYSIS. My first scientific breakthrough occurred while I was still in graduate school working toward my PhD degree at Cornell Medical College in New York City. I originated one of the earliest methods for analyzing the hydrophilic/hydrophobic nature of protein amino acid sequences to identify key interaction sites on these intriguing molecules. To this day, scientists around the world routinely utilize my "hydrophilicity plotting method" or the similar procedure of Kyte and Doolittle, who got their idea from me. More.

INTERLEUKIN 1. I led a team of 30 Immunex scientists in a race to clone Interleukin 1 before teams in other labs could beat us to the punch. Teams in the U.S. and Japan succeeded in cloning IL-1, but my 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 our steps however, and one competing company sued Immunex over who made the discoveries first. They named me in their court case with $164 million in the balance. More.

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

CURRENT SCIENCE. These days I hold several different positions in the biotechnology industry. As Vice President of Research and Development for CG Therapeutics, Inc., I seem to have entered yet another realm of scientific drama. In a time when cancer vaccines are frowned upon by the pharmaceutical industry, I'm spearheading an effort 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, but it has a dark side in cancer, helping tumors to grow and spread. Despite the inherent logic of CGT's plans, the pharmaceutical industry and venture capitalists are unable to bring themselves to invest sufficient money in CGT to take our new vaccine into the clinic for testing in cancer patients. But I've weathered stiff resistance in the past and I intend to do so again, until this vaccine is approved by the FDA and available to benefit cancer sufferers worldwide. More.