Current Participants
Dr. Farhad Rikhtegar Nezami, Visiting Scientist, November 2017 -
Dr. Farhad Rikhtegar Nezami is a Lead Investigator and Faculty Member at Division of Cardiac Surgery of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a Research Scientist and Project Leader at Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center at MIT. He received his PhD in Mechanical engineering from ETH, working on hemodynamics and drug transport in stented arteries. His research interests revolve around human pathophysiology, design and optimization of medical devices, and developing predictive/prognostic tools incorporating clinical data, computational tools, and machine-learning algorithms to drive progress from the bench and computational toolkit to the patient's bedside.
At CBSET, Farhad, as a visiting scientist, has contributed to developing OCT-based patient-specific three-dimensional models of intravascular interventions and local drug delivery. Since November 2017, Drs. Tzafriri and Nezami have served as co-lead investigators in the European Union’s HORIZON 2020 Insilc Grant 777119 aimed at developing an in-silico clinical trial platform for designing, developing and assessing drug-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS), in patient-specific geometries. The CBSET/MIT team developed the Drug Delivery Module and designed animal experiments for supporting this and other modules. His work at CBSET has contributed to conference abstracts and publications:
Georgia S Karanasiou, Panagiota I Tsompou, Nikolaos Tachos, Gianna E Karanasiou, Antonis Sakellarios, Savvas Kyriakidis, Luca Antonini, Giancarlo Pennati, Lorenza Petrini, Frank Gijsen, Farhad Rikhtegar Nezami, Rami Tzafriri, Martin Fawdry, Dimitrios I Fotiadis. An in silico trials platform for the evaluation of effect of the arterial anatomy configuration on stent implantation. Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering & Medicine Biological Society. Nov;2021:4213-4217. doi: 10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9629950.
Tzafriri AR, Marlevi D, Budrewicz J, Bailey L, Markham P, Albaghdadi M, Nezami FR, Edelman ER. Atraumatic Endoluminal Microincisions Enhance Balloon-based Drug Delivery In Complex Porcine Restenotic Lesions. CRT 2021 Virtual, Feb 13 - April 24, 2021.
Karanasiou GS, Tsobou PI, Tachos NS, Antonini L, Petrini L, Pennati G, Gijsen F, Nezami FR, Tzafriri R, Vaughan T, Fawdry M, Fotiadis DI. Design and implementation of in silico clinical trial for Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffolds. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2020 Jul;2020:2675-2678. doi: 10.1109/EMBC44109.2020.9176317. PMID: 33018557.
AR Tzafriri, FR Nezami, ER Edelman. Computational Prediction of Drug-Eluting Stent Performance in Patient-Specific Arteries: A Virtual Reality. CRT 2020, JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions 13 (4 Supplement), S43-S44F.
F. Rikhtegar Nezami, LS. Athanasioua, CC. O’Brien, L. Bailey, E. Ma, AC. Lopes, R. Tzafriri, ER. Edelman. Endovascular implant malapposition persists in diffuse hard lesions but not in pristine coronary arteries. EuroPCR, May 2020, Paris, France
Farhad Rikhtegar Nezami, Abraham R. Tzafriri, Elazer R. Edelman. Transient subject-specific drug delivery in stented arteries: physics-based simulation of controlled release and retention. 9th International Bio-Fluid Mechanics and Vascular Mechano-Biology Symposium, February 13-16, 2020, Tucson, Arizona.
Past Participants
Mazen Albaghdadi, MD MSc, Visiting Scientist, 2016 - 2022
Mazen Albaghdadi, MD, MSc, is currently the Director of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Associate Program Director Cardiology Fellowship at the Naples Heart Institute (NCH Healthcare System). During his Fellowship at CBSET, Dr. Albaghdadi was also a Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT, a Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at MGH, and a Clinical Fellowship in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
As a Visiting Scientist at CBSET, Mazen is involved in research related to neuroablation therapies, vessel preparation, and drug-coated balloons. His work at CBSET has contributed to conference abstracts and publications:
Abraham R. Tzafriri, Benny Muraj, Fernando Garcia-Polite, Antonio G. Salazar-Martín, Peter Markham, Brett Zani, Anna Spognardi, Mazen Albaghdadi, Steve Alston, Elazer R. Edelman. Balloon-based drug coating delivery to the artery wall is dictated by coating micro-morphology and angioplasty pressure gradients. Biomaterials, 2020 Nov;260:120337.
Abraham Tzafriri, Benny Muraj, Fernando Gacia-Polite, Antonio-Gabino Salazar-Martin, Peter Markham, Anna-Maria Spognardi, Brett Zani, Mazen Albaghdadi, Steve Alston, and Elazer Edelman. Drug-Coated Balloon Contact Pressure Predicts Endoluminal Coating Distribution. Presented at TCT Connect, October 2020.
Mazen Albaghdadi, Zhonglie Piao, Adam Mauskapf, Mohammed Chowdhury, Rami Tzafriri, Elazer Edelman, Guillermo Tearney, Farouc Jaffer. In vivo Imaging Assessment of Arterial Permeability Using Indocyanine Green: Implications for Optimizing Drug-Coated Balloon Treatment of Atherosclerosis. Poster presented at ATVB|PVD Scientific Sessions, May 14–16, 2019, Boston, MA.
Mazen Albaghdadi, MD MS, Fernando Garcia-Polite, PhD, Brett Zani, PhD, John Keating DVM, DACVP, Raffaele Melidone, DVM, DACVP, Anna Spognardi, BS, Peter Markham, MS, Abraham Tzafriri, PhD. Splenic Artery Denervation: Rationale, Feasibility, and Early Pre-Clinical Experience in a Porcine Model of Inflammatory Arthritis. Presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Sept 21-25, 2018, San Diego, CA.
Albaghdadi M, Garcia-Polite F, Zani B, Keating J, Melidone R, Spognardi A, Markham P, Tzafriri A. Splenic artery denervation: target micro-anatomy, feasibility, and early preclinical experience. Transl Res. 2019 Nov; 213:100-111. PMID: 31415732.
Antonio G. Salazar, BsC, MSc, Research Intern, October 2019 - May 2020
Prior to joining CBSET, Antonio G. Salazar received his Bs.C & M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the Universitat Ramon Llull (Spain), and had pursued his master's thesis under the supervision of Dr. Mercedes Balcells at MIT with a focus on designing, simulating, and manufacturing devices for in vitro tests mimicking the Blood-Brain Barrier, as well as studying the effects of molecular fatigue in the knee’s cartilage. Following the completion of his internship, Antonio enrolled as MEMP PhD student at Harvard-MIT HST, Cambridge.
As a CBSET Research Intern, Antonio helped develop computational models of contact pressure driven balloon based coating delivery for correlation with SEM images of in vivo treated arteries. His pivotal contributions merited authorship on an interdisciplinary abstract and manuscript:
Abraham R. Tzafriri, Benny Muraj, Fernando Garcia-Polite, Antonio G. Salazar-Martín, Peter Markham, Brett Zani, Anna Spognardi, Mazen Albaghdadi, Steve Alston, Elazer R. Edelman. Balloon-based drug coating delivery to the artery wall is dictated by coating micro-morphology and angioplasty pressure gradients. Biomaterials, 2020 Nov;260:120337.
Abraham Tzafriri, Benny Muraj, Fernando Gacia-Polite, Antonio-Gabino Salazar-Martin, Peter Markham, Anna-Maria Spognardi, Brett Zani, Mazen Albaghdadi, Steve Alston, and Elazer Edelman. Drug-Coated Balloon Contact Pressure Predicts Endoluminal Coating Distribution. Presented at TCT Connect, October 2020.
In addition, Antonio gained experience in toxicokinetic analysis and performed cell culture in vitro experiments from primary to progenitor cells, with MIT collaborators.
Gonzalo Munoz Taboada, Research Intern, April 2018 - December 2018
Gonzalo Munoz Taboada is a Biomaterial Scientist. Prior to joining to CBSET he received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and his MSc program of Bioengineering at IQS School of Engineering (Spain). He carried out her final thesis on 2015-2016 at MIT under the supervision of Dr. Mercedes Balcells.
As a CBSET Research Intern, Gonzalo worked on collaborative projects with BioDevek focused on the study of animal models and GLP safety assessment and efficacy of polymeric surgical adhesives. He also gained hands-on experience in protocol writing, GLP regulations and study design.
Currently Gonzalo is Lead Scientist at BioDevek in Cambridge Massachusetts.
Fernando García Polite, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, November 2016 - December 2018
Fernando García is a Bio-computational Scientist and Chemical Engineer who has interned for a year at CBSET (February 2015 - January 2016). Prior to returning to CBSET as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar, he carried out his PhD research at MIT and IQS School of Engineering, analyzing the effects of hemodynamic alterations on the performance of the blood-brain barrier, under the supervision of Dr. Mercedes Balcells.
Fernando's postdoctoral research at CBSET was supervised by Dr. Tzafriri and focused on the development of novel benchtop experimental models and computational analytical tools to support in vivo procedures during the development and optimization of drug and energy delivery devices. Following the completion of his postdoctoral fellowship, he remained at CBSET as Senior Scientific Data Analyst.
His work at CBSET has contributed to several conference abstracts and publications:
Mazen Albaghdadi, MD MS, Fernando Garcia-Polite, PhD, Brett Zani, PhD, John Keating DVM, DACVP, Raffaele Melidone, DVM, DACVP, Anna Spognardi, BS, Peter Markham, MS, Abraham Tzafriri, PhD. Splenic Artery Denervation: Rationale, Feasibility, and Early Pre-Clinical Experience in a Porcine Model of Inflammatory Arthritis. Presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Sept 21-25, 2018, San Diego, CA
Abraham R. Tzafriri, PhD, Fernando Garcia-Polite, PhD, John H. Keating DVM, DACVP, Anna-Maria Spognardi, BS, Peter Markham, MS, Elazer Edelman, MD, PhD. Superior and proximal nerves in porcine renal arteries are least accessible to radiofrequency ablation due to shielding by peri-arterial blood vessels and lymph nodes. Presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Sept 21-25, 2018, San Diego, CA
Abraham R. Tzafriri; Arben Muraj; Fernando Garcia-Polite; Peter Markham; Brett Zani; Anna-Maria Spognardi; Steve Alston; Elazer R. Edelman. Visualizing and quantifying differential distribution of balloon-delivered coating to porcine arteries. Presented at EuroPCR, 2018 May 21-24; Paris France.
Abraham R. Tzafriri, Fernando Garcia-Polite, Brett Zani, James Stanley, Benny Muraj, Jennifer Knutson, Robert Kohler, Peter Markham, Alexander Nikanorov, Elazer R. Edelman. Calcified plaque modification alters local drug delivery in the treatment of peripheral atherosclerosis. Journal of Controlled Release, Volume 264, 28 October 2017, Pages 203-210.
Tzafriri AR, Garcia-Polite F, Li X, Keating J, Balaguer JM, Zani B, Bailey L, Markham P, Kiorpes TC, Carlyle W, Edelman ER. Defining drug and target protein distributions after stent-based drug release: Durable versus deployable coatings. Journal of Controlled Release, Volume 274, 28 March 2018, Pages 102-108.
Maria Tomas Gracia, October 2017 - August 2018
Maria Tomas Gracia is a Biomedical Engineer. Prior to joining to CBSET she pursued her MSc program of Biomedical Engineering at Universitat de Barcelona and Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain). She carried out her final thesis on comparative medicine between animal and human thrombosis models under the supervision of Dr. Kolandaivelu at the Clinical Research Center, at IMES/MIT.
As a CBSET Research Intern, Maria worked on collaborative projects with MIT focused on the study of comparative models of thromobosis by incorporating elements of human disease conditions and patient-specific conditions into flow loop models of device interventions. She also gained hands-on experience in medical writing and scientific marketing.
Kumaran Kolandaivelu, Josep Maria Balaguer, Maria Tomas Gracia, Jose Manuel Sanes, Enric Estruch, Laura Perkins, Syed Hossainy, Rami Tzafriri, Peter Markham, Elazer Edelman. Local, regional, and systemic factors in BRS thrombosis in small vessels: understanding the sub-2.5mm barrier. Euro18A-OP165 Oral Presentation. EuroPCR, 2018 May 21-24; Paris France.
Currently Maria is preparing to start her pre-med studies at Tufts Arts, Sciences and Engineering in Medford MA.
Rebecca LaFleur, Veterinary Fellow, July 2017 - July 2018
Rebecca received her veterinary degree from Tufts University. Prior to joining CBSET, Rebecca completed a residency training program in Laboratory Animal Medicine at Penn State Hershey. As a CBSET Veterinary Fellow, Rebecca was actively involved in training staff, providing veterinary care and assisting in model development. Following the completion of her fellowship, she remained at CBSET as a Clinical Veterinarian.
Lucas Rotllant Daurella, BS Research Intern, April 2017 - March 2018
Lucas Rotllant Daurella is a Bioengineer from Universitat Ramon Llull (Spain) and came to us via Professor Jordi Martorell’s laboratory (a former CBSET intern himself!). Prior to joining CBSET he graduated with a BSc from the Bioengineering and Material Science and re-enrolled in a Master's program in Industrial Engineering Technology, which allowed him to go abroad for an internship and practicum.
As a CBSET Research Intern, Lucas helped develop cell-based services, learned and applied image analysis techniques to immunohistochemistry slides and SEM images, and developed 2D and 3D models of stent expansion and drug delivery. His work at CBSET contributed to several abstracts.
Tzafriri AR, Rotllant Daurella L, Keating JH, Garcia Polite F, Li X, Bailey L, Markham PM, Dutta D, Stoll HP, Edelman ER. Tracking tissue distribution and retention of Sirolimus and analog delivered from polymer free drug coated stents. TCT-508 Moderated Poster. TCT, 2018 Sept 21-25; San Diego, CA.
Tzafriri AR, Rotllant Daurella L,Keating JH, Garcia Polite F, Li X, Bailey L, Markham PM, Dutta D, Stoll HP, Edelman ER. Visualizing the tissue distribution and retention of Sirolimus and analog delivered from polymer free drug coated stents. Euro18A-OP173 Oral Presentation. EuroPCR, 2018 May 21-24; Paris France.
Alice Rouanet, Business Development Intern, May 2017 - September 2017
Alice Rouanet interned at CBSET in support of her Master’s degree program in pharmaceutical science with an emphasis on industry practice at the University of Montpellier in France. During her internship, Alice provided marketing and regulatory guidance in support of a collaborative service offering between CBSET and CILcare to provide preclinical auditory testing and ototoxicity models.
Her work regarding this collaborative service contributed to a publication in World Pharma Today magazine:
Pasdelou MP, Naimark M. "Auditory therapy ototoxicity, and GLP compliance." World Pharma Today, VOL. 2, Issue III, November 2017.
Josep Maria Balaguer, MS, Research Intern, September 2016 - August 2017
Josep Maria Balaguer is Biomechanical Engineer. Prior to joining CBSET, Josep M. Balaguer received his Bs.C & M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from UPC (Spain) and had interned at the MIT/IMES Clinical Research Center where carried out his master thesis focused on experimental and computational models for personalized diagnostic mapping of latent thrombotic responses, under the supervision of Kumaran Kolandaivelu, MD PhD.
As a CBSET Research Intern, Josep applied computational modeling and image analysis methods for understanding local tissue anatomy and stent based drug delivery. Building on his prior internship at MIT, Josep was also involved in the scaffold thrombosis research collaboration with Dr. Kolandaivelu. His work at CBSET contributed to several abstracts and a manuscript.
Kumaran Kolandaivelu, Josep Maria Balaguer, Maria Tomas Gracia, Jose Manuel Sanes, Enric Estruch, Laura Perkins, Syed Hossainy, Rami Tzafriri, Peter Markham, Elazer Edelman. Local, regional, and systemic factors in BRS thrombosis in small vessels: understanding the sub-2.5mm barrier. Euro18A-OP165 Oral Presentation. EuroPCR, 2018 May 21-24; Paris France.
Tzafriri AR, Garcia-Polite F, Li X, Keating J, Balaguer JM, Zani B, Bailey L, Markham P, Kiorpes TC, Carlyle W, Edelman ER. Defining drug and target protein distributions after stent-based drug release: Durable versus deployable coatings. Journal of Controlled Release. Volume 274, 28 March 2018, Pages 102-108.
Tzafriri AR, Garcia-Polite F, Li X, Keating J, Balaguer JM, Zani B, Bailey L, Markham P, Kiorpes TC, Edelman ER. TCT93 Stent based tissue drug and binding target protein distributions: durable versus deployable coatings. TCT-93. JACC. Volume 70, Issue 18, Supplement, 31 October 2017, Page B41. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2017.09.150.
Jordi Martorell, Research Intern, September 2011 - August 2012
Prior to joining CBSET, Jordi received a BSc and MSc in chemical Engineering from the Universitat Ramon Llull (Spain), and had pursued graduate studies under the supervision of Dr. Mercedes Balcells at MIT.
As a CBSET intern, Jordi developed analytical techniques to perform histopathology on polymeric tubes and compare them with animal models. This work done in collaboration with the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center, and contributed to his PhD thesis and to two journal publications:
Martorell, Santomá, Molins, García-Granada, Bea, Edelman, Balcells. Engineered arterial models to correlate blood flow to tissue biological response. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1254 (2012) 51–56.
Martorell, Santomá, Kolandaivelu, Kolachalama, Melgar-Lesmes, Molins, García, Edelman, Balcells. Extent of flow recirculation governs expression of atherosclerotic and thrombotic biomarkers in arterial bifurcations. Cardiovasc Res. 2014 Jul 1;103(1):37-46
Currently, Dr. Martorell is an Assistant Professor at the IQS School of Engineering.
Mikhail Maslov MD, PhD, Visting Scientist, June 2015 - April 2017
Dr. Maslov is an Assistant Professor, Staff Lead Scientist at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine.
As a visiting scientist at CBSET, Mikhail developed animal models of heart failure, investigated pharmacology of novel cardiovascular drugs, and was involved in the development of CBSET’s bench-top models of arterial drug distribution.
Kenta Nakamura, MD, Research Fellow, July 2015 - June 2016
Dr. Nakamura joined CBSET as a Research Fellow in conjunction with a Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT, a Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at MGH, and a Clinical Fellowship in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
At CBSET, Kenta focused on developing animal models of heart failure, while also directing studies and performing large animal. His work at CBSET contributed to several abstracts and one manuscript.
K Nakamura, JH Keating, ER Edelman. Pathology of Endovascular Stents. Interventional Cardiology Clinics. July 2016, Volume 5, Issue 3, Pages 391–403.
Nakamura K; Bailey L; Grintz T; Keating JH; Edelman ER. Efficacy and Histomorphologic Evaluation of the Essential Medical MANTA Large Bore Vascular Closure Device in Swine. Presented at Innovations in Cardiovascular Interventions (ICI ) 2015, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Currently Dr. Nakamura is completing an Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Washington and will be joining the Heart Regeneration Project and cardiac catheterization laboratory as Senior Postdoctoral Fellow and Acting Instructor of Medicine in July 2017.
Fernando García Polite, MSc, Research Intern, February 2015 - January 2016
Prior to joining CBSET Fernando Garcia received his Bs.C & M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from IQS (Spain) and had pursued graduate studies under the supervision of Dr. Mercedes Balcells MIT with a focus on the Hemodynamic alterations at the Blood-Brain Barrier.
As a CBSET Research Intern, Fernando was focused on designing, developing and implementing computational methods to assess the preclinical performance of endovascular drug and energy delivery devices.
Tzafriri AR, Garcia-Polite F, Schulz-Jander D, Melder R, Goshgarian J, Tunev S, Stone G, Edelman ER. Solubility-controlled sirolimus release from drug-filled stents. EuroPCR; 2016 May 17-20; Paris, France.
Tzafriri AR, Nikanorov A, Zani B, Stanley J, Garcia-Polite F, Budrewicz J, Knutson J, Kohler R, Markham PM, Edelman ER. Plaque modification with an orbital atherectomy system enhances drug distribution in calcified peripheral arteries. EuroPCR; 2016 May 17-20; Paris, France.
Tzafriri AR; Bailey L; Keating JH; Garcia-Polite F; Markham PM; Prutchi D; Edelman ER. TCT-84 Enhanced Circumferential Ablation using a Multi-electrode Bipolar/Unipolar Over-the-Wire Renal Denervation RF Catheter System with Closed Loop Sensing. TCT-84. JACC. 2015;66(15_S):. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2015.08.128
After defending his PhD thesis, Fernando returned to CBSET as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar.
