Bio

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Chairman & CEO, ExploraMed, Inc. (1995 - Present)
  • Venture Partner, NEA (2003 - Present)
  • Chairman of the Board, Acclarent, Inc. (2004 - Present)
  • Chairman of the Board, Moximed, Inc. (2007 - Present)
  • Chairman of the Board, Vibrynt, Inc. (2006 - Present)
  • Chairman of the Board, NeoTract, Inc. (2005 - Present)
  • Board of Directors, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc. (2000 - Present)

Honors & Awards

  • M.I.T. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, M.I.T. (1995)

Professional Education

  • S.B., M.I.T., Mechanical Engineering (1985)
  • MBA, Columbia University, Business (1993)
  • M.D., NYU School of Medicine, Medicine (1989)

Contact

Links

Research & Scholarship

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Dr. Makower serves as a Consulting Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and is a consultant and real world mentor of Stanford’s Biodesign Program, and Co-Founder of the Biodesign Innovation Program at Stanford.

Dr. Makower is also the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator based on the west coast and is also a Venture Partner with New Enterprise Associates.

Prior to this, he was Founder, Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of TransVascular, Inc. a company focused on the development of a completely catheter-based coronary bypass technology, which was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. in 2003, and Founder and Chairman of EndoMatrix, Inc., a company focused on the development of a novel therapy for incontinence and GI Reflux, which was acquired by C.R. Bard in 1997.

Up until 1995, Dr. Makower was Founder and Manager of Pfizer’s Strategic Innovation Group, a group chartered to create new medical device technologies and businesses for Pfizer’s medical devices businesses.

Dr. Makower holds over four dozen patents for various medical devices in the fields of Cardiology, ENT, Orthopedics, General Surgery, Drug Delivery and Urology. Dr. Makower holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Columbia University, a Doctor of Medicine degree from the New York University School of Medicine, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Makower also serves as Chairman of the Board for Acclarent, Inc., NeoTract, Inc., Vibrynt, Inc., Moximed, Inc, and on the Board of Directors for Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc. - a venture backed private company developing innovative spinal therapies.

Publications

Journal Articles

  • Inventing our future: training the next generation of surgeon innovators. Seminars in pediatric surgery Krummel, T. M., Gertner, M., Makower, J., Milroy, C., Gurtner, G., Woo, R., Riskin, D. J., Binyamin, G., Connor, J. A., Mery, C. M., Shafi, B. M., Yock, P. G. 2006; 15 (4): 309-318

    Abstract

    Current surgical care and technology has evolved over the centuries from the interplay between creative surgeons and new technologies. As both fields become more specialized, that interplay is threatened. A 2-year educational fellowship is described which teaches both the process and the discipline of medical/surgical device innovation. Multi-disciplinary teams (surgeons, engineers, business grads) are assembled to educate a generation of translators, who can bridge the gap between scientific and technologic advances and the needs of the physician and the patient.

    View details for PubMedID 17055962

  • Principles of Innovation Interventional Cardiology Makower, J.,, Nayak, A. 2006; Chapter 71
  • Percutaneous transvenous cellular cardiomyoplasty - A novel nonsurgical approach for myocardial cell transplantation JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY Thompson, C. A., Nasseri, B. A., Makower, J., Houser, S., McGarry, M., Lamson, T., Pomerantseva, I., Chang, J. Y., Gold, H. K., Vacanti, J. P., Oesterle, S. N. 2003; 41 (11): 1964-1971

    Abstract

    The study evaluated a nonsurgical means of intramyocardial cell introduction using the coronary venous system for direct myocardial access and cell delivery.Direct myocardial cell repopulation has been proposed as a potential method to treat heart failure.We harvested bone marrow from Yorkshire swine (n = 6; 50 to 60 kg), selected culture-flask adherent cells, labeled them with the gene for green fluorescence protein, expanded them in culture, and resuspended them in a collagen hydrogel. Working through the coronary sinus, a specialized catheter system was easily delivered to the anterior interventricular coronary vein. The composite catheter system (TransAccess) incorporates a phased-array ultrasound tip for guidance and a sheathed, extendable nitinol needle for transvascular myocardial access. A microinfusion (IntraLume) catheter was advanced through the needle, deep into remote myocardium, and the autologous cell-hydrogel suspension was injected into normal heart. Animals were sacrificed at days 0 (n = 2), 14 (n = 1, + 1 control/collagen biogel only), and 28 (n = 2), and the hearts were excised and examined.We gained widespread intramyocardial access to the anterior, lateral, septal, apical, and inferior walls from the anterior interventicular coronary vein. No death, cardiac tamponade, ventricular arrhythmia, or other procedural complications occurred. Gross inspection demonstrated no evidence of myocardial perforation, and biogel/black tissue dye was well localized to sites corresponding to fluoroscopic landmarks for delivery. Histologic analysis demonstrated needle and microcatheter tracts and accurate cell-biogel delivery.Percutaneous intramyocardial access is safe and feasible by a transvenous approach through the coronary venous system. The swine offers an opportunity to refine approaches used for cellular cardiomyoplasty.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/S0735-1097(03)00397-8

    View details for Web of Science ID 000183219100010

    View details for PubMedID 12798567

  • New Approaches and Conduits: In Situ Venous Arterialization and Coronary Artery Bypass. Current interventional cardiology reports Fitzgerald, P. J., Hayase, M., Yeung, A. C., Virmani, R., Robbins, R. C., Burkhoff, D., Makower, J., Yock, P. G., Oesterle, S. N. 1999; 1 (2): 127-137

    View details for PubMedID 11096617

  • The Characterization of the Dexterous Hand Master Index Finger in Flexion and Extension The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation Makower, J.,, Parnianpour, M., Nordin, M. 1990; May: 61
  • The Validity Assessment of the Dexterous Hand Master: A Linkage System for the Measurement of Joints in the Hand The Annals of Biomedical Engineering and Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology Makower, J.,, Parnianpour, M., Nordin, M. 1990; August

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