Bartley P. Griffith, MD
Thomas E. and Alice Marie Hales Distinguished Professor of Transplant Surgery
Director of the Cardiac and Lung Transplant Programs
Vice Chair for Innovation
University of Maryland School of Medicine
A Novel Percutaneous Access Graft System for Improved Heart Patient Care
For more information about this technology, please contact the UM Ventures, Baltimore team.
Bio
Over my career, my clinical and investigational work has focused on the treatment of heart and lung end-stage diseases. I have approached that task by combining heart and lung transplantation with the developments in total artificial heart, ventricular assist devices, ECMO, and now ambulatory ECMO. To do so, I established the McGowan Center for Artificial Organ Development at the University of Pittsburgh, which was a $10 million philanthropic effort resulting in the multi-use free-standing facility. I have continued my investigative work and, since 1986, have been continuously funded as a principal investigator by the NIH. Work continued in an ambulatory artificial lung, which first was funded in 1990, and has used more than $20 million of NIH support. The device once imagined on a napkin is now cleared by the FDA for clinical use, and the role-out of the Breethe system designed for home use will begin in the next few months. The work on this system evolved with clinical input from experiences in patients with end-stage respiratory distress but also included multi-disciplinary input from a broad array of experts in the bioengineering aspects of the project. Recently, my funding has extended to include clinical program director for xenotransplantation of the heart. This program’s ongoing focus has been the outcome in genetically engineered swine hearts when placed in baboons. Success with that program (survivals in excess of 150 days and ongoing) suggests that clinical implementation may be appropriate soon. Throughout my career I have been a mentor of cardiothoracic surgical trainees and other post doc engineers.