Dr. Nordquist received his bachelor’s degree in Biology and Psychology from Oklahoma City University. After graduation, he began working in the Dermatology Department at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), where he received a Ph.D. in Pathology. While in graduate school at OUHSC, he studied the skin using the Electron Microscope, which at the time was revolutionary in science and medicine. He created the Society for E.M. In addition, he became a Member of the Cancer Section at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation where he studied the biology of breast cancer and leukemia in children. He then continued his research as a Professor of Anatomy at OUHSC and became Director of Research at the Dean A McGee Eye Institute where he continued his Electron Microscopy studies.

Dr. Nordquist was one of the co-founders of Immunophotonics and co-inventor of its lead asset, IP-001. Once of his greatest achievements was discovering that tumor cells produce proteins that mimic blood group antigens which are utilized as a tumor escape mechanism. This was a significant contribution to today’s understanding of the immune-editing mechanism of cancer cells. He expanded his research into laser applications in medicine, eventually focusing, his group of collaborators on optimizing thermal ablation techniques. This research had a tremendous impact in discovering that thermal ablation combined with a novel pharmaceutical agent could achieve systemic antitumor immunity in animals. His many years of work culminated in myriad patents and publications in scientific journals, including the prestigious journal Science. All who knew him felt his warm and caring personality. Dr. Nordquist worked closely with the Immunophotonics team, and his memory will live on as we continue the development of IP-001.