Billionaire biopharmaceutical executive Patrick Soon-Shiong and his wife Michele Chan are giving St. John’s Health Center $35 million to complete the Santa Monica hospital’s reconstruction and create a new center for cutting-edge research and treatments.

The hospital was set to unveil the gift at a Wednesday ceremony at the hospital, which is in the process of an earthquake retrofit and expansion from 150 to 230 beds.

The planned Chan Soon-Shiong Center for Translational Sciences will help bridge the gap between research and patient care, said Soon-Shiong, founder and chief executive of Los Angeles-based Abraxis BioScience Inc. Soon-Shion, whose company developed the proprietary cancer treatment Abraxane, said he envisions clinical trials and research into biomedical areas such as adult stem cell therapies taking place at the facility.

“There’s a need for integrated institutions where the people who invented the discovery and the physicians who can implement that testing are all on one campus,” said Soon-Shiong, a former UCLA surgeon and researcher.

The St. John’s donation the largest single philanthropic gift to date for Soon-Shiong and is the largest ever received by the hospital. The Business Journal estimated that Soon-Shiong was worth $8 billion last year, making him the eighth wealthiest resident of the county.