Our scientific advisory board is composed of distinguished professors from some of the nation's most prestigious medical schools, and assists the company in several areas:

We meet with this board as a group and individually with various members on an as-needed basis.

James T. Willerson, M.D.
Denton Cooley, M.D.
Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D

James T. Willerson, M.D. has served as chairman of our scientific advisory board since January 1990 and has been a member of the board of directors since May 1990. Dr. Willerson has served as a professor and chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston since 1989. In 1995, he was appointed Medical Director of the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. He was Chief of Cardiology of Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas from 1975 to 1989, director and principal investigator of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School Ischemic Heart Disease, Specialized Center of Research, in Dallas from 1975 to 1989, director of the cardiology division at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School from 1977 to 1989, and professor of medicine and radiology from 1979 to 1989. He also served as co-director of the Bugher Molecular Biology and Cardiology Research Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas from 1986 to 1989. Dr. Willerson has published nearly 700 manuscripts and has been editor or co-editor of 18 textbooks. He was selected for membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science in 1998 and named Distinguished Scientist of the American College of Cardiology for 2000. In 1961, Dr. Willerson received a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. In 1965, he received an M.D. from the Baylor College of Medicine, graduating as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha. Dr. Willerson's medical and cardiology training was undertaken at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
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Advisory Director
Denton Cooley, M.D., founder, president and surgeon-in-chief of the Texas Heart Institute, is a world-renowned surgeon, having pioneered many techniques used in cardiovascular surgery today. A native of Houston, Texas, Dr. Cooley graduated with the highest honors from the University of Texas and earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in 1944. Upon completion of his medical degree, Dr. Cooley was involved in breakthroughs that established the groundwork for incredible advances in cardiovascular surgery and treatments.

In 1951, Dr. Cooley accepted a position as a full-time faculty member of Baylor College of Medicine, where he served for 18 years. In 1962, he founded the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke s Episcopal Hospital. He resigned his post at Baylor in 1969 to assume his present position as surgeon-in-chief of the Institute.

In addition to the first successful human heart transplant in the United States and the first implantation of a total artificial heart in a human, Dr. Cooley and his associates have performed more than 97,000 open-heart surgeries more than any other facility in the world. During this time, he has pioneered many surgical techniques for coronary bypasses and the repair of aortic aneurysms, and has contributed to the development of methods to repair and replace diseased heart valves. He is also widely known for operations to correct congenital heart anomalies in infants and children.

Dr. Cooley is a 1998 recipient of the nation s highest honor for technological innovation, the National Medal of Technology, presented by President Clinton. He has been named Distinguished Alumnus at both the University of Texas and the Johns Hopkins University; Honorary Fellow in four Royal Colleges of Surgery, and has received decorations from 12 foreign countries. He is also the author or co-author of more than 1,200 scientific articles and several books.
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Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and the Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine. Dr. Murad was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998, the Ciba Award in 1988 and the Albert and Mary Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research in 1996. He is a member of many professional and honorary societies, and is the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific articles.
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