| Craig R. Travis, M.D., President |
 |
 |
|
Craig R. Travis, M.D. Craig R. Travis, M.D., President. Dr. Travis founded Immugen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in 1999 after realizing that an alternative approach to the treatment of HIV could exist based on targeting the immune system rather than the virus. He filed for a patent on March 22, 1999, for Alkylated Resorcinol Derivatives for the Treatment of Immune Diseases, which was awarded on August 14, 2001. He was able to outsource the synthesis program to The Southern Research Institute in Birmingham. HIV testing was performed at the Institute's Frederick, Maryland, facility. For more information about the patents, go to the dropdown tab: Intellectual Property.Dr. Travis is a practicing physician and is board certified in emergency medicine. He practiced medicine in Negril, Jamaica, from 1988 until mid-1994. In a Letter to The National AIDS Foundation of Jamaica dated November 14, 1991, he suggested that the widespread use of marijuana could be masking the true prevalence of HIV. He proposed that a number of studies be conducted to test the hypothesis but never got a reply. Now, nearly 20 years later, a proposal for a case-control study will be submitted to leading clinicians who have extensive experience with HIV, as well as the medicinal use of marijuana. Dr. Travis has been involved in other biotech startup activity. He was a co-founder of AMDL, Inc., in 1988 which engineered a universal tumor marker assay. Dr. Travis developed a keen sense of the scientific method and particularly the importance of observation through his relationship with Donald Rounds, Ph.D., a cell biologist and Director of Research at the Huntington Research Institute in Pasadena, California. Dr. Rounds discovered The Ring Shaped Particle, later described as the proteosome. Dr. Travis was also inspired by the work of Robert Guerrero, Ph.D., Vice-President for R&D at AMDL. During that time, Dr. Travis was instrumental in the development of a simple and effective device used for the self-collection of vaginal specimens to screen for cervical cancer. During the evaluation period of the device, two cases of cervical dysplasia were discovered in a cohort of 10 patients. Dr. Travis did his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin and graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Institutions in 1966. His graduate thesis was based on original sociological research conducted in a Chicago public housing project. After graduation, he traveled widely and taught in England and France before returning to the United States to pursue medicine. He completed pre-medical studies at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus. During that time he worked in Dr. Anthony Stefic’s laboratory at the American Dental Association studying the embryogenesis of cleft palate. He enrolled in the Chicago Medical School in 1972 and graduated in 1976. After a year of internal medicine internship at the University of Illinois, he started practicing emergency medicine and has been board certified since 1986. He is currently practicing in Hollywood, Florida, in the Memorial Health System. He has been married for the past 28 years; he has three grown children and one grandchild. While he was living in Jamaica, he was made painfully aware of the lack of an emergency medical system which could dispatch an ambulance to an accident scene. He quickly devised a Stretcher Board Program for spinal trauma, with the cooperation of the local hotel sector and the Negril Chamber of Commerce. This eventually lead to a series of meetings convened by Dr. Henry Lowe, President of Blue Cross/Blue Shield - Jamaica, Sir John Godling, Orthopedic Surgeon and Founder of the Rehabilitation Centre of the West Indies and the Ministry of Health. These meetings eventually lead to the formation of the island’s first Fire Brigade-based ambulance service which was piloted in Westmoreland, the parish in which Negril is located. Also, during his time in Negril, Dr. Travis was instrumental in founding The Negril Coral Reef Society and The Negril Fishermen’s Cooperative, with the overall goal to establish a marine park in Negril without displacing local fishermen. As a result of his efforts, the Negril Area Environmental Protection Trust (NEPT) was formed, and a marine park is close to implementation.
|
