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Our Team

A group of experienced and talented professionals with a proven track record of successfully bringing innovative medical device technology from back of the napkin to first-in-human clinical trials.

Mark Gelfand

Managing Partner and Chief Technical Officer

Mark Gelfand

Managing Partner and Chief Technical Officer

Mr. Gelfand has more than 30 years of experience developing medical devices in academic, startup and corporate environments. His expertise is in integrative physiology, systems engineering and intellectual property. With Dr. Levin, he co-founded Axon Therapies, Soffio Medical, Cibiem, CHF Solutions, Ardian and Respicardia and served as the chief technology officer to those ventures. He worked for Nellcor Puritan Bennett where he was responsible for the architecture development of a new ICU ventilator platform and was co-founder and chief technology officer of CardioLogic Systems Inc., where he was responsible for the development of the Vest CPR device designed to treat cardiac arrest.

Mr. Gelfand holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and received graduate-level training in physiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Howard R. Levin, M.D.

Managing Partner, President, and Chief Medical Officer

Howard R. Levin, M.D.

Managing Partner, President, and Chief Medical Officer

A veteran in the field of biomedical engineering and cardiology, with a specialty in heart failure and transplantation, Dr. Levin brings more than 35 years of clinical and commercial healthcare experience to his role.

In 2003, with Mark Gelfand, Dr. Levin co-founded Coridea. His inventions and co-inventions have successfully launched or their patents helped launch companies including Ardian (Medtronic), CHF Solutions (Gambro), Respicardia (formerly, Cardiac Concepts), eValve (Abbott) and RenalGuard/Reprieve Cardiovascular (PLC Medical), Cibiem and Soffio Medical. He has held a number of positions in these companies including President, Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Medical Officer and VP of R&D.

Dr. Levin received his M.D. from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and his training in cardiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He also has a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.

Zoar Engelman, PhD

Partner and Chief Scientific Officer

Zoar Engelman, PhD

Partner and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Engelman leads Coridea’s R&D efforts. He plays an integral role in the maturation of ideas from initial concept to fundable project to viable medical product. Dr. Engelman also leads all NIH Grant submissions on behalf of Coridea.

Prior to joining Coridea, Dr. Engelman was the Director of Research at a Cibiem, a medical device start-up. There he led the research effort from the initial back of the napkin concept, preclinical physiological studies, initial clinical feasibility trials, preclinical safety studies and development of two catheter-based therapeutic platforms with corresponding first in human clinical trials in Europe and Australia.

Dr. Engelman earned a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Auckland and a MS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Utah.

Adam Rosenwach

Partner and Chief Business Officer

Adam Rosenwach

Partner and Chief Business Officer

As Chief Business Officer, Mr. Rosenwach manages all financial aspects of Coridea and its portfolio companies, taking lead on fundraising efforts and closing financing rounds, managing global operations with offices in NY, the Bay Area, and throughout China, and financial management of several NIH SBIR grants. He joined the company in 2014.

He has extensive experience in fundraising and operations in China with a focus on complex international company structures, cross-border capital transfer, and cross-cultural project management.

Adam is a member of Wharton’s 46th Executive MBA class. Prior to joining Coridea, Mr. Rosenwach attended the Berklee College of Music, producing music and managing artists through his production company. He also pioneered music technology programs in public schools throughout New York City and founded a travel consulting company. Adam sits on the Board of the Bronx Arts Ensemble, where he plays an important role advising on the education committee.

Anisha Bapna

Senior Researcher

Anisha Bapna

Senior Researcher

As Senior Researcher, Ms. Bapna directs preclinical and engineering efforts for several medical device products. Additionally, she writes research strategy for NIH grants, assesses marketability of early stage medical devices, invents intellectual property, and supports regulatory filings and panel meetings.

Prior to joining Coridea, Ms. Bapna worked at IBM Watson Health where she worked to pinpoint key growth areas for new product launches for several Fortune 500 companies and to formulate an overall IBM Watson Health expansion strategy. Ms. Bapna also served as Chief Medical Analyst at Human Health Project where she led the medical analytics team focused on product strategy and the algorithm creation for evidence-based grading of medical data.

Ms. Bapna graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering and materials science engineering.

Edward Ruppel

Senior Engineer

Edward Ruppel

Senior Engineer

Mr. Ruppel leads Coridea’s preclinical device development. He has a principal technical role in bringing device designs from ideas to clinical devices.

Since joining Coridea in 2017, Mr. Ruppel has lead engineering efforts for multiple devices addressing unmet clinical needs, as well as supporting several Coridea portfolio companies with device and model development for preclinical studies.

Mr. Ruppel earned a Master’s of Science in Engineering in Bioengineering from the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering, Innovation, and Design. His research there included leading engineering development on a novel therapy for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension, and a device for the prevention of pneumothorax during percutaneous lung biopsy. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester.

Qi (Leo) Li

Engineer

Qi (Leo) Li

Engineer

Dr. Li serves as an engineer in preclinical device development and IP construction at Coridea. He leads and participates in multiple medical device projects, focusing on solution probing, product design, structural test, quality verification, etc. In addition to his engineering experience, Dr. Li creates patents of innovative technologies for Coridea.

Dr. Li received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics from Lehigh University. His investigation included manufacturing process optimization, polymeric material processing, real-time monitoring of injection molding, and mold cavity modeling and design. Prior to this, he earned a master’s degree from the same department, where his research focused on polymer biodegradation and property analysis.

Ying Shah

Controller

Ying Shah

Controller

Ying Shah joined Coridea in 2017. As Controller, she handles all administrative and internal accounting functions at Coridea, the company’s SBIR government grants, and the investee companies in the U.S. and China. Ms. Shah is fluent in both Mandarin and English, and is an important member of our outreach program to various Chinese business persons and partners.

A native of Shanghai, China, Ms. Shah graduated from East China University of Science and Technology with a bachelor’s degree in International Trade. She gained extensive accounting experience working for her family pharmaceutical business.

Linda Salcido

Executive Assistant/Office Manager

Linda Salcido

Executive Assistant/Office Manager

Ms. Salcido joined the Coridea team in 2018 as the company’s Executive Assistant and Office Manager. She is based in our West Coast office.

With over 20 years as an Executive Assistant and over 15 years as an Office Manager, Ms. Salcido brings a wide range of experience and expertise in medical device start-ups to Coridea. Prior to joining the company, Ms. Salcido worked with multiple medical device start-ups, including EP Technologies (Boston Scientific), Pathwork Diagnostics, VisionCare Ophthalmic and Advanced Cardiac Technologies.

Coridea has offices in the New York City metropolitan area and Santa Clara, California.

Our executive staff is based in our east coast office with easy access to both major airports and railway stations. This facility has workspace for our engineering staff, access to conference rooms and a small prototyping shop. It is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to facilitate collaboration and enable rapid design development and testing.

Our R&D facility in Santa Clara is equipped with a clean bench area with wet lab, a prototyping workshop, state-of-the-art prototyping and design tools, and conference spaces. Our engineering staff works closely with the team in New York to generate ideas, test concepts and develop prototypes for testing.