Management Team

Gary W. Wood, Ph.D. founded TVAX Biomedical in 2004 and has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors since inception. Dr. Wood is the inventor and principal developer of the TVAX Immunotherapy technology. Dr. Wood guided the development of TVAX Immunotherapy from concept through its most recent human clinical trials. Dr. Wood organized and coordinated the Phase I/II clinical trials performed at University of Kansas Medical Center and at Wayne State University and managed the scientific/clinical teams that performed the trials. Dr. Wood was Professor of Pathology, Director of the Diagnostic Immunology Laboratory and Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Laboratory at KU Medical Center. Dr. Wood also was Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Laboratory at Wayne State University. Dr. Wood has a B.A. from Kalamazoo College and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Rex E. Wiggins has served our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer since 2008.  Mr. Wiggins has served as a director since 2010.  From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Wiggins served as the Manager of Private Equity Investments for Midland Properties, Inc. where he conducted professional valuation of private equity companies.  Mr. Wiggins has extensive venture capital experience and considerable experience with guiding the successful development of early stage companies.  Mr. Wiggins has held a series of senior management positions in start-up companies, including a Kansas City-based vaccine company.  Mr. Wiggins was President and CEO of Kansas Venture Capital for thirteen years. He has a B.S. and M.B.A. from the University of Missouri in Columbia. We believe that Mr. Wiggins is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his financial expertise and extensive experience with early stage companies.

Catherine E. Lucasey is a cofounder and has served as a director since inception. Ms. Lucasey has been our Vice President for Communications and Marketing since 2010.  From 1990 through 2011, Ms. Lucasey worked as the nurse manager of the Endocrine Division at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Ms. Lucasey is a registered nurse with 25 years of experience in the health care industry with research, consumer education and direct patient care experience. She has a B.S.N. and M.A.s in Marketing and Management from Webster University.

Timothy A. Wurst has served as our Vice President for Clinical and Regulatory Affairs since 2010. Mr. Wurst operated Eriban Research, Inc. a contract research organization (CRO) that designed and managed clinical studies for a variety of human therapeutics from 2004 to 2010.  He has broad experience in oncology and infectious disease therapeutic areas.  He has a B.A. from the University of Colorado and an MBA from San Diego State University.

Frank P. Holladay, M.D. is a cofounder and has served as our Chief Medical Officer since inception. Holladay is a codeveloper with Dr. Wood of TVAX Immunotherapy and is an expert on the delivery of the TVAX treatment. Dr. Holladay is a board-certified neurosurgeon and brain cancer immunologist in private practice since 1991. He has a B.A. from the University of California, Berkley, and an M.D. from Creighton University Medical School. He did his Neurosurgery residency at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine.

Patrick E. Fields, Ph.D. has served as our Chief Science Officer since 2010. Dr. Fields is a cancer immunologist and an expert in T cell activation. Since October, 2004, he has been a research scientist in the Cancer Division, the Department of Pathology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Fields is extensively published in the area of T cell biology, having over thirty peer-reviewed scientific publications.  He has a B.A. from Louisiana State University, a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and post-doctoral training from the University of Chicago and Yale University.