News Archive

Annual Prize Honors a Unique Biomedical Engineer, Scientist, and Cardiologist

NEW YORK – October 12, 2017 - Internationally renowned cardiologist, Elazer Edelman, MD, PhD, will be presented with the TCT Career Achievement Award on Monday, October 30^th during the 29^th Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference in Denver, Colorado. TCT is the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). TCT Directors, Martin B. Leon, MD, and Gregg W. Stone, MD, will present the award.

“We are extremely proud to honor Elazer Edelman with the TCT 2017 Career Achievement Award,” said Dr. Leon, CRF Founder and Co-Director of Medical Research and Education. “Over the course of his distinguished career, he has transformed patient care by bringing together experts from various disciplines to create highly effective and clinically relevant solutions to medical problems. His research, which combines his passion for basic science with practical medical training, has contributed to generations of life-changing devices such as bare-metal and drug-eluting stents.”

A lifelong researcher and innovator, Dr. Edelman and his students have been credited as some of the key contributors and pioneers of the coronary stent. His research examining the cellular and molecular mechanisms that produce atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease critically advanced the development and optimization of the first bare-metal stents and subsequent iterations, including drug-eluting stents. His most recent publications have focused on how tissue engineered cells might be used for the local delivery of growth factors and growth inhibitors in the study of the vascular homeostasis and repair, cancer invasiveness and metastases and the homology between endothelial paracrine and angiocrine regulation in cancer and vascular diseases.

“Dr. Edelman is widely recognized for his vision, leadership, advancement of technological innovations, and novel insights into biomedical pathways and vascular responses,” added Dr. Stone, Co-Director of Medical Research and Education at CRF. “Along with his extensive academic, clinical, and medical pursuits, he has devoted a significant amount of his career to mentoring the next generation of researchers and clinicians.”

Dr. Edelman’s research integrates multiple disciplines including polymer based controlled and modulated drug delivery; growth factor biology and biochemistry; tissue engineering; biomaterials-tissue interactions and the vascular response to injury. He has been deeply devoted to the education and training of colleagues and future generations by mentoring more than 350 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He has also authored or co-authored nearly 300 original scientific publications.

Dr. Edelman is currently the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is a core member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES). He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Senior Attending Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Edelman also directs the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center (BMEC), dedicated to applying the rigors of the physical sciences to elucidate fundamental biologic processes and mechanisms of disease.

Dr. Edelman received Bachelor of Science degrees in Bioelectrical Engineering and Applied Biology from MIT, a Masters of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from MIT, a degree in medicine from Harvard Medical School and a PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from MIT. His graduate thesis work, under the direction of Prof. Robert Langer, defined the mathematics of regulated and controlled drug delivery systems.  

After receiving his degrees, he completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine, all at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He subsequently spent six years as a research fellow in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School with Prof. Morris J. Karnovsky working on the biology of vascular repair.

Dr. Edelman is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Inventors. As Chief Scientific Advisor of Science: Translational Medicine and member of the FDA Scientific Board, he has set the tone for the national debate on translational research and innovation.

Previous winners of the TCT Career Achievement Award include: Geoffrey O. Hartzler, MD; David R. Holmes, MD; Patrick W. Serruys, MD, PhD; John B. Simpson, MD; Antonio Colombo, MD; Julio C. Palmaz, MD; Donald S. Baim, MD; William W. O’Neill, MD; J. Eduardo M.R. Sousa, MD, PhD; Eugene Braunwald, MD; James T. Willerson, MD; Paul Yock, MD; Barry T. Katzen, MD; Seung-Jung Park, MD; Spencer B. King III, MD; Alain G. Cribier, MD;  Eric J. Topol, MD; Renu Virmani, MD; Andreas Gruentzig, MD; Michael J. Mack, MD; John E. Abele; and Runlin Gao, MD.

The TCT Career Achievement Award will be presented on Monday, October 30, 2017 at 9:45 AM MT in the Main Arena (Bellco Theater) of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.