Michael Banbury, M.D., FACS, Member of the Clinical Advisory Board

Dr. Banbury is the W. Samuel Carpenter III Distinguished Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery at Christiana Care’s Center for Heart & Vascular Health. The As the chief cardiovascular surgeon at Christiana Care, Dr. Banbury leads a team of highly skilled and experienced heart surgeons who perform approximately 700 open heart procedures each year. Before joining the Center for Heart & Vascular Health in April 2006, he was a distinguished clinician and researcher for nine years at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr. Banbury has a special interest in valve repair and replacement, coronary artery bypass, minimally invasive valve surgery and ventricular remodeling, as well as heart transplantation. He and his associates at the Cleveland Clinic over the past several years have investigated and performed surgical ventricular remodeling operations, including the Dor procedure, an innovative heart reconstruction procedure used when an aneurysm forms in the left ventricle, or pumping chamber, following a major heart attack. He has broad surgical experience in heart valve repairs and replacements and minimally invasive heart valve surgery, as well as with coronary artery bypass surgery. Dr. Banbury has been primary investigator or coinvestigator involved in numerous research projects and clinical studies. He has been an invited lecturer at numerous national and international symposia and he is the author or co-author of more than 60 scientific articles, abstracts and book chapters on topics related to his specialty interests. Dr. Banbury received a bachelor’s degree at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and earned his medical degree at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmington. He trained in general surgery at the New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center and completed his cardiothoracic surgery training at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1997. At the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Banbury received the 1997 Annual Research Award and the 1998 Dr. Charles H. Bryan Annual Clinical Excellence Award. He is a member of many professional and specialty related organizations and associations, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. TOP

Blase A. Carabello, M.D., Member of the Clinical Advisory Board

Blase Carabello is a cardiologist and the Moncrief Professor of Medicine and Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Michael DeBakey V.A. Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine. He has served as Chairman of the American Heart Association (“AHA”) physiology study section and has over 200 publications exploring the physiology and cell biology of valvular heart disease and its role in causing congestive heart failure. Dr. Carabello is an author of the joint AHA/American College of Cardiology 2006 guidelines for the management of valvular heart disease. He received his M.D. from Temple University and did his residency in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and his cardiology fellowship at the Brigham Hospital, Harvard Medical School. TOP

Richard “Pat” Cochran, M.D., Member of the Clinical Advisory Board

A long-time collaborator with ValveXchange, Dr. Cochran is Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute. Pat Cochran has more than 25 years experience in clinical surgery and medical research, including surgical technique development, medical product evaluation, and clinical program development. During his long career as a practicing surgeon and heart valve researcher, Dr. Cochran has pioneered a number of technically challenging surgical procedures, such as aortic valve sparing in cases of a dilated aortic root, and is well-recognized for his expertise in reconstructive cardiac valve surgery. Dr. Cochran has held leadership positions in both academic and private sectors. Previously, he was the Chairman of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. His M.D. is from Emory and he trained in surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and in cardiothoracic and vascular surgery at University of Utah. He holds fellowship status with the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons, the American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Cardiology, and American College of Surgeons. TOP

Floyd Loop, M.D., Advisor
Dr. Loop is a distinguished and world-recognized cardiothoracic surgeon, and former CEO of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He recently retired as CEO and now acts as a part time advisor to Venture Capital firms. Dr. Loop heard about VXI through his VC contacts and offered his advice. He is very enthusiastic about the technology and now advises us informally about the clinical positioning of the VXI technology. TOP

Technical Consultants

Stuart Williams, Ph.D., Animal Studies Consultant

Dr. Williams is the Scientific Director of The University of Louisville’s (Kentucky) Cardiovascular Innovation Institute. Until recently, he was Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chairman of the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program at the University of Arizona, Director of Biomedical Engineering at the Arizona Research Laboratories, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Physiology, Material Sciences and Engineering, and Surgery. Dr. Williams is an inventor on numerous patents and has authored over a hundred refereed journal articles, abstracts and book chapters. He directs an outstanding animal research laboratory, where he does basic science on coronary artery bypass grafts, ventricular assist and total artificial heart and heart valves, and develops new technologies to improve the success and lifespan of peripheral vascular grafts. Dr. Williams earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Biology, Biochemistry, and Cell Biology, respectively, from the University of Delaware, and performed post-doctoral research in vascular pathology at Yale University. TOP

Robert Baier, Ph.D., Biomaterials Consultant

Dr. Baier is Professor of Biomaterials at SUNY, Buffalo. He serves as Executive Director of the National Science Foundation’s Industrial/University Center for Biosurfaces at SUNY, Buffalo. He is a founding fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, is on the editorial board for the Journal of Adhesion and has previously served as President of the Society for Biomaterials. Dr. Baier has published extensively in the biosurface physics as it relates to medical implant technology. He was instrumental in formulating the anti-fibrotic coatings strategy in one of our Phase I SBIR grants and the new Phase II award. Dr. Baier earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics at University of Buffalo, SUNY and performed post-doctoral research in surface science at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. TOP