William Edelman - Executive Chairman
Bill Edelman is a medical device industry executive with over 33 years of experience. He serves as Chairman of the Board for Leviticus Cardio, Ltd., (cardiac assist power systems), Co-Chairman for ETView, Ltd., (TASE: ETVW) (airway management), Chairman of the Board for Medivalve, Ltd., (percutaneous aortic valve placement) and Cardioflow, Ltd., (embolic protection). Mr. Edelman also serves as an Advisor to the Healthcare Board for Northeast Securities, Inc., a member of the Screening Committee, Medical Devices, for Mass Medical Angels, a member of the Advisory Council for the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as well as an Advisor to Highland Instruments, Inc., and MindChild Medical, Inc. Mr. Edelman recently served as Chairman of the Board for PolyTouch, Ltd. (general surgical instrumentation) and Stimatix GI, Ltd., (ostomy products).
Previously, Bill served as President & Chief Executive Officer, TYRX, Inc., a commercial-stage venture backed medical device company focused in drug/device implant products for general surgery, electrophysiology and cosmetic surgery.
Prior to TYRX, Mr. Edelman held executive level positions at MicroSense International, LLC (bio-sensing), FibraSonics, Inc. (ultrasonic surgical products), NeuroMod, Inc. (neuro-stimulation technologies), St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE: STJ), Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE), and Baxter International, Inc. (NYSE: BAX).
Mr. Edelman graduated with a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has been issued 15 U.S. patents and is an applicant on 3 additional pending patent applications.
Lisa has a strong academic track record at preeminent research institutions in Europe and the United States. Her interests and endeavors have thus far extended from solving basic scientific problems to supporting applied clinical practice. Lisa completed her graduate studies at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge (UK), and postdoctoral studies at the Center for Neurologic Disease, Harvard Medical School, where she later held a junior faculty position in the Department of Neurology. Lisa further held the position of Associate Immunologist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Dr. Maier was also a research affiliate at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lisa has authored numerous articles that span several scientific disciplines in top-tier journals including Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She has also acted as Vice President at a venture capital firm (Seed-One Ventures) and lead an international technology sourcing and evaluation program. Lisa received a B.Sc. in Biomedical Science from Anglia Ruskin University (UK) and a Ph.D. in Medical Genetics from the University of Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College (UK).
To contact Lisa please email: lisa@paragonixtechnologies.com
Board of Directors
William Edelman, Executive Chairman
Lisa Maier, BSc, PhD - President, Co-Founder
Tom DeBrooke, BA, MA, MBA - Director
, Co-FounderTom has been advising company Presidents, Chief Executive Officers, and Corporate Boards for over 30 years and has created many successful start-up companies. Tom received a BA in Political Science from St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas. He completed the Yale University Graduate School Masters Degree program in Finance and Transportation. Subsequently, he earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Tom is the 2009-2011 National Chairman of Harvard University's Early College Awareness Program.
Richard Burtt, Director
As Managing Director of Value Added Stragegies, LLC (VAS), Mr. Burtt advises senior management of life science businesses in the 
commercialization stage on partnerships, financings, organizational development, business development, and marketing strategies for sustained growth and sharehold value. Mr. Burtt has raised over $39 million in angel and venture capital in his role as CEO and as a BOD member achieving consistent shareholder value.
Mr. Burtt has earned the Professional Director Certification for Public Companies from the American College of Corporate Directors (2011) and has over 30 years' experience as an independent Board member.
Mr. Burtt is a Gerson Lehrman Group Council Expert Consultant; a member of MassMedical Angels and their Screening Committee; a Mentor in the MassMedic MEDTech IGNITE program; and a frequent speaker and panelist on business development and strategic exits including MIT Enterprise Forum, WPI and Merrimack Valley Venture Forum, Start-up Leadership Program, and a Foley Lardner Strategic Conferences.
Mr. Burtt holds a MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts (Lowell).
Prof. Leonid Bunegin
Scientific Advisory Board
Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board:
Dr. David H. Sachs, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
From 1968 to 1970, Dr. Sachs trained as a surgical intern and research fellow in transplantation at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He then moved to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where he developed a major program in transplantation research. He became Chief of the Transplantation Biology Section, Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute in 1974, and Chief of the Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute in 1982. During a sabbatical year in 1984-1985 Dr. Sachs was Visiting Professor, Department of Cell Research, Wallenberg Laboratory at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, where he initiated studies of the molecular biology of transplantation antigens in the miniature swine model. In 1991, he returned to the Massachusetts General Hospital as Director of the Transplantation Biology Research Center and the first Paul S. Russell/Warner-Lambert Professor of Surgery (Immunology), Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Sachs has published over 700 articles in scientific journals. His research achievements include: 1) discovery of Ia (Class II) antigens in 1973; 2) development of monoclonal anti-bodies to MHC antigens; 3) development of a unique large animal model for transplantation using miniature swine; 4) use of mixed marrow reconstitution as a means of inducing specific transplantation tolerance; and 5) studies of specific transplantation tolerance to allografts and xenografts in murine, swine and primate models. Dr. Sachs is a member of the Editorial Board of several journals in his field, including: Clinical Transplantation, Transplantation, Xenotransplantation and Chimerism. He is one of the three North American Editors of Transplantation and was the founding Editor of Xenotransplantation.
Dr. Sachs was the recipient of the Public Health Service Commendation Medal in 1979 and of the Meritorious Service Award in 1984. He was a Councilor of the Transplantation Society from 1988-1994 and Vice-President from 1996-1998. From 1992-1996, Dr. Sachs was a member of the Immunobiology Study Section at the National Institutes of Health, and has served on the Immunology Executive Committee at Harvard Medical School since 1991. Dr. Sachs was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. In 1998 Dr. Sachs received the Jean Borel Award in Transplantation and the ASTP/Novartis Established Investigator Award. In 2001 Dr. Sachs was presented the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Health Research by The Medical Foundation and the Mary Jane Kugel Award by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In 2005, he received the Roche Ernest Hodge Memorial Award (formerly called the Roche AST Distinguished Achievement Award), the highest award bestowed by the AST. In 2006, Dr. Sachs was awarded an Honorary Degree (Docteur Honoris Causa) from University of Nantes, France. In 2009, Dr. Sachs received the Martin Prize for Excellence in Clinical Research.
Members of the Scientific Advisory Board:
A. Benedict Cosimi, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Cosimi is the Claude E. Welch Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Chief Emeritus of the Transplantation Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital. After graduating summa cum laude from Regis College in Denver, Dr. Cosimi earned his M.D. degree magna cum laude from the University of Colorado. Dr. Cosimi has demonstrated a life-long commitment to scientific advancement in the field of transplantation and surgery. He has had a special interest in highly selective suppression of transplant immunity. He was the first to demonstrate in 1980 the efficacy of OKT3 monoclonal antibody, a drug still used today, for treatment of allograft rejection. Most recently, Dr. Cosimi's efforts have been directed towards defining an immunosuppressive approach that provides donor-specific tolerance of the transplant. Dr. Cosimi is on the Editorial Board of many prestigious surgical and transplantation journals and is the co-editor of the definitive textbook, Transplantation. He has published over 50 book chapters and 350 peer-reviewed scientific reports. He is a member of many national and international surgical and transplantation societies and has held key executive council or committee positions in many of these. He is the Past-President of the New England Surgical Society, President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons as well as President of the 2006 World Transplantation Congress. He also currently on the Scientific Advisory Boards for the American Liver Foundation, the Massachusetts Kidney Foundation, and several biotechnology research foundations.
Prof. James Southard, Ph.D.
Dr. Southard directed Organ Preservation Research in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Southard continued the scientific efforts of his mentor, Dr. Folkert O. Belzer, who originally established the laboratory in 1975. Dr. Belzer was a pioneering physician in the field of kidney transplantation and regarded by many as the ‘Father of Organ Preservation’. Two of the key discoveries made in this laboratory were a universal, organ cold storage solution called Belzer University of Wisconsin (ViaspanÔ) and a kidney perfusion solution, named Belzer-MPSÔ. Dr. Southard’s work was instrumental in the development of these preservation solutions. The University of Wisconsin Solution has been recognized as the gold standard preservation solution by clinicians and scientists and was a major break-through in preserving organs for transplant surgeries. This synthetic solution can safely preserve organs for longer periods of times with less risk of tissue damage. Dr. Southard, a prolific author of over 200 scientific publications, holds several patents for organ perfusion solutions and their components. He obtained his Ph.D. in Food Science/Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts.
Joseph Nespral, M.D., Texas Organ Sharing AllianceDr. Nespral has directed clinical services at Organ Procurement Organizations for over 22 years. His experiences range from Organ Procurement Manager at the New York Regional Transplant Program (New York, NY), Senior Vascular Coordinator at LifeLink of Georgia (Atlanta, GA), Manager of Procurement at LifeLink of Puerto Rico (San Juan, Puerto Rico) to Senior Director of Clinical Services at the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (San Antonio, TX). He was instrumental in establishing LifeLink of Puerto Rico in 1994. Dr. Nespral was a member on several national committees relating to Organ Procurement and Donation: these include the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) Patient Affairs Committee, the UNOS Organ Procurement Committee and the National Conference on Donation after Cardiac Death. Dr. Nespral received his B.S. and M.D. degrees from the Universidad Central del Este (Dominican Republic). He is a Certified Procurement Transplant Coordinator since 1990.
Dr. John Howe III, Project HOPEDr. Howe is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere). In its 50+ year operating history, Project HOPE has emerged as a leading provider of medical training and health eduction to advance the quality of health care and humanitarian assistance around the globe, particularly in areas of need. Prior to his leadership at Project HOPE, Dr. Howe was the Distinguished Chair in Health Policy at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and served as the Center's chief executive for 15 years. Dr. Howe is board certified in both internal medicine and cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Howe has a bachelor's degree from Amherst College and earned his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. He served two years in the Army Medical Corps and later completed the Health Systems Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Wolfgang Klietmann, M.D. FACP, Harvard Medical School