Paul A. Iaizzo, PhD

Paul A. Iaizzo, PhD FHRS is a Professor is the Departments of Surgery, Integrative Biology & Physiology and the Carlson School of Management, at the University of Minnesota. He serves on the graduate faculties in Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience, Integrative Biology & Physiology, Biological Science, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and Mechanical Engineering. He is the Director of the Malignant Hyperthermia Diagnostic Center and Medtronic Professor of Visible Heart® Research, and the Associate Director and Medtronic Chair of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine. Focused on translational systems physiology, the Visible Heart® Laboratories are well known for their multimodal imaging techniques of functional cardiac anatomies and device testing within large mammalian hearts, including human. Dr Iaizzo trained over 200 students and is recognized as a “Distinguished University Teaching Professor”. Dr. Iaizzo authored more than 280 original articles, over 100 book chapters, and is on numerous medical devices patents. In 2012, he was named to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) for "outstanding contributions to research and education in translational systems physiology and cardiovascular engineering".

Paul Sorajja, MD

Dr. Paul Sorajja is an interventional cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and the Director of the Center for Valve and Structural Heart Disease, and is the Roger L. and Lynn C. Headrick Family Chair of the Valve Science Center for the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. Dr. Sorajja specializes in catheter-based therapy of valvular heart diseases. He was part of the team that performed the first transcatheter mitral valve replacement in the U.S. in 2015, and has the highest worldwide experience with that procedure. Dr. Sorajja published over 200 manuscripts and book chapters, served in leadership positions in multiple national societies, and is a founding Board member of the Cardiovascular Innovations Foundation.  He is the recipient of the Robert G. Hauser Award for Leadership Excellence in Innovation from the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

Francesco Grigioni, MD, PhD

Dr. Grigioni is Professor of Medicine and Chair of Cardiology at the Universita Campus Bio-Medica di Roma (Italy). An internationally recognized researcher in heart valve diseases, he is an associate editor of the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology. He serves as lead investigator for the Mitral Regurgitation International Database (MIDA) study, a multicenter registry of outcomes from mitral valve disease. Data from MIDA has transformed clinical decision making in valvular heart disease.

Didier Tchétché, MD, PhD

Dr. Tchétché graduated from René Descartes University, Paris, France. He worked as Interventional cardiologist at Intensive care unit and catheterization laboratory, Hospital Bichat-Claude Bernard, Paris, France before joining the Clinique Pasteur, in Toulouse, France, in 2008 to lead the structural heart disease program. Dr Tchétché brings passion for the field of valvular heart disease and an extraordinary clinical experience having performed more than 5,000 percutaneous aortic valve replacement procedures. He is actively involved in numerous clinical trials involving new technologies and devices in the field of interventional cardiology.

David Messika-Zeitoun, MD

David Messika-Zeitoun is full Professor of Cardiology at University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He was trained in Paris, France. He is a non-interventional cardiologist specialized in echocardiography. His main clinical and research area of interest is Valvular Heart Disease. He has developed large prospective registries, participated in several RCTs and has been involved in the development of new percutaneous devices for valve diseases. He has been appointed in January 2018 by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute to lead the Valve Program as Director of the Center for Valvular Heart Disease. He is Chairman of the Heart Valve Disease Working Group of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and Associated Editor of the European Heart Journal.

William E. Cohn, MD

Dr. Cohn is the Director for the Center of Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center (TMC). He is also a professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and an adjunct professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, the University of Houston and Texas A&M. Prior to joining TMC, he served as a Vice President at Johnson & Johnson MedTech, Executive Director for the Johnson & Johnson Center of Device Innovation at TMC, and Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation and Director of the renowned Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratory at the Texas Heart Institute. Dr. Cohn has been deeply involved in developing the continuous-flow, totally implantable, artificial heart. In 2011, Dr. Cohn and Dr. O. H. Frazier successfully implanted the first pulseless total heart replacement device in a human patient. Dr. Cohn has been granted more than 90 US patents or patents pending. Since 2012, Dr. Cohn has served as the Chief Medical Officer and on the Board of Directors for BiVACOR and CSI Inc.