Filipino scientist at the cutting edge in a lecture tour of Sydney

By Jaime K. Pimentel
Sydney-Australia
May 9, 2015



His discovery while at the University of California in Berkeley has brought relief and healing to heart and terminal cancer patients for whom medicine had been unable to find a cure.

Dr Galvez explained that Lunasin, a soybean bioactive peptide, had both chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activities.

Following acceptance of Lunasin as a worthy health supplement, America’s Food and Drug Administration approved the heart health claim for soy protein in 1999.

And, in 2008, Dr Galvez presented Lunasin’s “epigenetic mechanism of action for lowering cholesterol”.

He has since been recognised for his work in epigenetics in Europe, Canada, the USA, and the Philippines.

Dr Galvez completed degrees as Bachelor of Science (BS) and Master of Science (MS) in Genetics and Plant Physiology at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, Laguna, and his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Genetics at the University of California, Davis.

After completing his PhD, he worked for the USDA-ARS at Washington State University and at the University of California Berkeley as a research biochemist and geneticist, and was president and chief executive officer of FilGen Biosciences, a start-up biotech company involved in commercializing the anti-cancer properties of Lunasin.

Dr Galvez is married to Winnie Lei, an optometrist.  The couple have two children, William and Katelyn.