Dr. Hawke has significant experience in proteomics and protein chemistry, and is considered a leader in mass spectrometry. Dr Hawke has special interest in MHC peptides, modified amino acids and post-translational modifications.
As former head of MD Anderson’s proteomics facility, he used mass spectrometry to detect antigens for an academic colorectal cancer trial, the only clinical trial ever to do mass spectrometry for each patient, synthesize the peptides vaccine based on this data for each patient, and vaccinate each patient with these tailor made peptides.
Additionally, Dr Hawke has held several leadership positions as Senior Applications Scientist, at Applied Biosystems and PerSeptive Biosystems, as Applications Development Manager at BioMolecular Technologies, and Technical Contributor, Protein Chemistry Systems at Hewlett-Packard Co. He has also held roles as Senior Project Chemist, Oxford GlycoSystems Ltd., Abingdon, England, UK., as Scientist, Chemical Research and Development, at Applied Biosystems, and Research Associate, Division of Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA.
Dr Hawke received a B.S. in Chemistry at M.I.T., Cambridge, followed by a M.S. in Organic Chemistry from CalTech, Pasadena, and a Ph.D. In Bioanalytical Chemistry from the University of the Pacific, Stockton. He is also very widely published having 129 peer reviewed publications, to his credit.