Marvin Slepian

Dr. Marvin J. Slepian is Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and BioMedical Engineering at the University of Arizona and McGuire Scholar in the Eller College of Management, also at Arizona. Dr. Slepian presently directs the Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation and teaches a university-wide course annually on Innovation, Translation and Entrepreneurship. Dr. Slepian also serves as Adjunct Professor at several Universities including StonyBrook in BioMedical Engineering and UMDNJ in Oral Biology. Dr. Slepian is Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of SynCardia, having served as founding President and Chairman for over a decade.

Dr. Slepian received his AB in Biochemical Sciences and Science in Human Affairs from Princeton in 1977 and his MD from the University of Cincinnati in 1981. He completed his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine – Bellevue Hospital, where he also served as Chief Resident in Medicine. Dr. Slepian completed both a clinical and research fellowship in Cardiology and Cardiovascular BioMedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins. He completed a second fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic and was appointed as Research Associate in the Division of Heart and Hypertension Research and Artificial Organs. He completed additional post-doctoral training in Polymer Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Washington University and MIT.

In parallel with his clinical career Dr. Slepian has had a synergistic career in basic and translational research and technology transfer. At the basic level his laboratory has focused on three main areas: 1. the role of cell-matrix interactions in vascular disease and 2. the role of physical forces in modulating cell behavior and 3. the utility of polymeric biomaterials to modulate cell-matrix interactions as well as serve as novel therapeutic structural, barrier or drug delivery materials. On the translational level his lab has developed many novel therapeutic solutions based on polymeric biomaterials which have found their way into clinical use today including: drug-eluting stent technologies, stent coatings, “polymer paving,” surgical anti-adhesive barriers, synthetic tissue sealants, myocardial revascularization and cell delivery methods and cardiovascular prosthetic devices, including the total artificial heart. As to technology transfer Dr Slepian has founded several medical device companies as spin-outs including Focal (NASDAQ), Endotex, Angiotrax, Hansen Medical (NASDAQ), Arsenal, 480 BioMedical, MC10 and SynCardia and has been involved with bringing many new devices through the FDA regulatory process into clinical use, including most notably the total artificial heart.

Dr. Slepian is the author of numerous publications and patents in the fields of vascular biology, polymeric biomaterials, local drug delivery and artificial organs. He is an active reviewer for several journals and is a consultant for academia, industry and governmental agencies. He is presently on the board of directors of several medical device companies. He has received multiple awards for his academic and translational research activities and has been a frequent Visiting Professor and Lecturer in Medicine (Cardiology), Biomedical Engineering and Innovation, both nationally as well as internationally.