Michael J. Wick, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer of START and co-founder of its preclinical division XenoSTART. He is internationally recognized in the field of preclinical oncology drug development with a career spanning over 30 years and considered one of the most respected experts in establishing relevant animal models of human cancer.

Dr. Wick has grown XenoSTART to one of the largest service providers of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models in the world with over 2500 models spanning twenty-eight indications including the largest available panel of breast PDX models.

Prior to START, Dr. Wick served as the Director of Preclinical Research at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center’s (CTRC) Institute for Drug Development where he pioneered the return of PDX models to preclinical oncology development.

Dr. Wick earned his Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and then awarded an NCI post-doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds undergraduate Bachelor of Science degrees in chemistry and biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin and currently holds an adjunct assistant professorship in the Department of Pharmacology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.