Dave S.B. Hoon, Professor and Director of Dept. of Translational Molecular Medicine at the John Wayne Cancer Institute, interacts with external academic, industry, government agencies, and international cancer centers to develop innovative translational cancer research opportunities. He has over 30 patents on his studies and has co-authored over 350 peer-reviewed articles and reviews, primarily related to translational molecular oncology of human solid tumors. He is the original pioneer of JWCI in Santa Monica, 1991.

Dr. Hoon pioneered investigations of CTC and circulating cell-free DNA/miRNA biomarkers for monitoring cancer in patients enrolled in phase II/III clinical trials. Since early 1990’s Dr. Hoon’s team has developed molecular biomarkers for molecular staging of sentinel lymph nodes and classification of human solid tumors including CRC, melanoma and breast cancer. In the last decade he and his team have developed programs for assessment of epigenetic and ubiquitin regulatory pathways of solid tumors such as melanoma, breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, and brain tumors. Dr. Hoon has trained over 70 MD/PhD fellows and over a dozen graduate students. The department consists of >20 employees. Awarded multiple NCI RO1s and PO1s, and DOD grants in the past 30 yrs.