About Amorcyte Leadership Investors Technology Clinical Trials Corporate Development News & Events Andrew L. Pecora, M.D., FACP Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Amorcyte, Inc., Chief Medical Officer of NeoStem, Inc. Dr. Pecora currently serves as Vice President of Cancer Services and Chief Innovations Officer of the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, as well as Managing Partner of the Northern New Jersey Cancer Center (“NNJCC”), a private physicians practice group affiliated with HUMC. Based on his involvement with numerous companies in the development of their products and his management of a large clinical practice and the cancer department of a major health care institution, Dr. Pecora brings a variety of business development and practical business skills to the Company. Dr. Pecora also has significant experience in clinical trials design (Phase I-III), institutional review board practices, conducting clinical trials, and in payor relationships both domestically and on a global basis. Dr. Pecora is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tetralogics, Inc., and is a member of the Board of Directors of Cancer Genetics, Inc. Dr. Pecora is a scientific advisor for numerous state, national and international organizations, and served on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. In addition, he has served on the Board of Directors for the International Society of Hematotherapy and Graft Engineering and Affiliated Physicians Network, on the Accreditation Committee and as an Inspector for the Foundation for Accreditation of Hematopoietic Cell Therapy. Dr. Pecora also served on the following: the Amgen Stem Cell Factor National Advisory Board; the New Jersey State Commission for Core Clinical Advisory Group, Bone Marrow Transplant Subcommittee; the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Bone Marrow Transplant Review Team; the Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry of North America, Breast Cancer Working Committee; the Breast Cancer Task Force for the Bergen County Branch of the American Cancer Society; and the Journal of Hematotherapy, Bone Marrow Transplantation and the Journals of Clinical Oncology and BLOOD, as a reviewer. He was appointed to serve as Chairman of the Transplant Committee of the International Society of Hematotherapy and Graft Engineering. More recently, Dr. Pecora was appointed to a State-of-the-Science Committee convened by the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. His research interests focus on the study of high-dose therapy and stem cell transplant in the treatment of patients with cancer. He has been actively involved as principal investigator and co-investigator in many national research studies, receiving extensive grant support for his efforts. He has been invited to present his work at numerous scientific meetings and continues to contribute to the published literature. Dr. Pecora received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, graduating with honors. He went on to complete his medical education in internal medicine at New York Hospital and in hematology and oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City. He is board certified in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology. He has also received a degree in medical management. Eugene Braunwald M.D., M.D. (hon), Sc.D. (hon), F.R.C.P. Dr. Braunwald is the Distinguished Hersey Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Founding Chairman of the TIMI Study Group at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Braunwald received his medical training at New York University and completed his Medical Residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1955 he became a Clinical Associate in the (then) National Heart Institute. Subsequently, he served as the first Chief of the Cardiology Branch and then as Clinical Director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. After he left the intramural program, Dr. Braunwald served as the founding Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego and from 1972 to 1996 he was Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He was a founding trustee and Chief Academic Officer of Partners HealthCare System, which incorporates the Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals. Dr. Braunwald was the first cardiologist elected to  the National Academy of Sciences. He has served as President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of Professors of Medicine. He has received numerous honors and awards including the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American College of Cardiology, Research Achievement, and Herrick Awards of the American Heart Association, the Williams Award of the Association of Professors of Medicine, and the Kober medal of the Association of American Physicians. He is the recipient of nineteen honorary degrees from distinguished universities throughout the world. Harvard University created the Eugene Braunwald Professorship in Medicine as a permanently endowed chair. The American Heart Association created the Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award as a permanent annual award. The living Nobel Prize winners in medicine voted Dr. Braunwald as “the person who has contributed the most to cardiology in recent years”. In 1998 Science Watch listed Dr. Braunwald as the most frequently cited author in Cardiology. The Brigham and Women's Hospital dedicated a research facility as the “Eugene Braunwald Research Center”. Dr. Braunwald is the author of more than 1400 publications and an editor of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, (Editor-in-Chief of the 11th Edition and the current 15th Edition) and the founding editor/author of Heart Disease, now in its 9th Edition. These two books are the leading texts in internal medicine and cardiology respectively. Dr. Braunwald has led a number of key TIMI trials since 1984 and he has also led the SAVE, CARE and PEACE trials. Douglas L. Mann, MD Dr. Mann is the Lewin Professor and Chief, Cardiovascular Division at Washington University School of Medicine and the Cardiologist-in-Chief, Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Dr. Mann received his undergraduate training at Lafayette College, in Easton, Pennsylvania and his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After finishing his residency in Medicine at Temple University Hospital, he completed his Cardiology Fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, and was a Clinical and Research Follow at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts and a Research Fellow in Cardiology at Temple University Hospital. He has been on Staff at Baylor College of Medicine from 1991-2009 before coming to Washington University School of Medicine. He was the Don W. Chapman Chair and Professor of Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine, Chief of Cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and the Texas Heart Institute, and Director of the Winters Center for Heart Failure Research. Dr. Mann’s primary area of research is in the molecular and cellular basis of heart failure, with a particular emphasis on the role of inflammatory mediators in disease progression in the failing heart. He has published over 200 articles and reviews in this field, is the editor for a leading textbook in heart failure: “Heart Failure, A Companion to Braunwald’s Heart Disease, (2nd edition)” and is a co-editor for the 9th edition of “Braunwald’s Heart Disease.” Dr. Mann has previously served as the Deputy Editor for Chest and was an Associate Editor for Circulation. He is currently is a member of the Editorial Board of Circulation, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Cardiology Today, Heart and Vessels, Heart Failure Reviews, Heart Failure Monitor, Congestive Heart Failure, and the Journal of Cardiac Failure. He has received numerous awards including the Michael E. Debakey award for excellence in research, and the Alfred Soffer Award for Editorial Excellence from the American College of Chest Physicians. Dr. Mann is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of University Cardiologists, The Association of Professors of Cardiology, the Heart Failure Society of America, the International Society for Heart Failure Research, the International Cytokine Society, and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology as well as the American College of Chest Physicians. He is the immediate past president of the Heart Failure Society of America. Bernard J. Gersh, M.B.Ch.B., D.Phil. F.R.C.P. Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Consultant in Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine and Associate Chair of Academic Affairs and Faculty Development in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at Mayo Clinic. His past positions include The W. Proctor Harvey Teaching Professor of Cardiology and Chief of the Division of Cardiology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Gersh received his MB, ChB, from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He received his Doctor of Philosophy Degree from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Dr. Gersh is a Fellow of the South African College of Physicians and Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom as well as a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association. Dr. Gersh’s wide interests include the natural history and therapy of acute and chronic coronary artery disease, clinical electrophysiology,and in particular atrial fibrillation and sudden cardiac death, the cardiomyopathies and the clinical implications of molecular genetics in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, cardiac stem cell therapy and the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease in the developing world. He has written 683 articles and 129 book chapters.  Dr. Gersh is the editor of 13 books and is on the editorial board of 25 journals including Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Senior Consulting Editor), Nature Cardiovascular Medicine,and The European Heart Journal (2009 Deputy Editor).  He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Reynolds Foundation, a Past Chairman of the Council of Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association, an at large member of the World Heart Federation’s Scientific and Policy Initiatives Committee (SPIC), and a former Member of the Board of Trustees of the American College of Cardiology.  He has served on the Steering Committees and Data Safety Monitoring Boards of multiple clinical trials, sponsored by the National Lung and Blood Institute and other organizations. He is currently Chairman of the WHO Cardiovascular Working Group on ICD 11 Reclassification. Dr. Gersh’s honors include Teacher of the Year Award from the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic and numerous Visiting Professorships and Invited Lectures both nationally and internationally including the 2009 Henry Russek ACC lecture, Rene Laennec Invited Lecture and Silver Medal of the 2010 ESC, and the Hatter Award for “Advancement in the Cardiovascular Science” from the University College London and the University of Cape Town.  He is an Honorary Member of the South African Cardiac Society and The South African Heart Association, and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Sociedad Chilena De Cardiologia Y Cirugia Cardiovascular.  He is an Honorary Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.  Dr. Gersh is a member of the Advisory Board of the Hatter Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of Cape Town. Dr. Gersh was the 2004 recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award of the AHA Council of Clinical Cardiology and the 2007 recipient of the ACC Distinguished Service Award. Ph.D. he received the degree of Ph.D. (honoris causa) from The University of Coimbra, Portugal in 2005. Dean J. Kereiakes, M.D Dean J. Kereiakes, M.D., is Medical Director of The Christ Hospital Heart and Vascular Center, Medical Director of the Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education, Chairman, Executive Committee of The Ohio Heart & Vascular Center, and Professor of Clinical Medicine at Ohio State University. Dr. Kereiakes received his medical degree and was valedictorian of his graduating class at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. His postgraduate training included internship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco, a senior residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and a chief residency at the University of California, San Francisco. He then completed fellowships in adult cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco and in coronary angioplasty at the San Francisco Heart Institute and the Sequoia Hospital. Dr. Kereiakes has been an investigator for most of the interventional technologies introduced in the last two decades and has performed more than 25,000 catheterization laboratory procedures. In addition to lecturing nationally and internationally, Dr. Kereiakes is very active as a clinical and scientific investigator and has participated in over 800 clinical research protocols. He has published over 600 journal articles, abstracts and book chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of Circulation, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology Cardiovascular Interventions, The American Heart Journal, Journal of Invasive Cardiology, The American Journal of Cardiology and The Journal of Interventional Cardiology, as well as being a Section Editor for MedReviews (New Drugs and Devices). He was previously a Section Editor for Circulation. Dr. Kereiakes is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He was a member of the Joint American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force Committees to write guidelines for both coronary angioplasty and unstable angina. Dr. Kereiakes has been selected as Outstanding Alumnus University of Cincinnati School of Medicine, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Best Doctors in America and has received the Cincinnati Business Courier Health Care Hero - Innovator award and the Ohio Valley American Heart Association’s Kaplan Visionary Award for cardiovascular research. Bertram Pitt, M.D. Dr. Pitt, a graduate of the Medical School of the University of Basel (Switzerland), is Professor of Internal Medicine emeritus, University of Michigan School of Medicine. Before that, he spent 15 years as the Director, Division of Cardiology, University of Michigan School of Medicine. Dr. Pitt’s research is in practically all areas of cardiovascular disease, with special emphasis on the ischemic heart disease and heart failure. Dr. Pitt is author of close to 500 papers and chapters in books and is Member of the Editorial Board on a number of Journals in cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Pitt received his postdoctoral training at Beth Israel Hospital Boston and the Johns Hopkins Hospital University, and then joined the Faculty of the John Hopkins University. He joined the University of Michigan in 1977 as the Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the Division of Cardiology. He is a member of numerous professional societies and has held office in several of them. Among others, he was Chairman, Council on Circulation of the American Heart Association, President of the Michigan Chapter of American College of Cardiology, Chairman, Young Investigator’s Award and the Tesearch Committee of the American College of Cardiology. Dr Pitt has distinguished himself as the Principal or Co-principal Investigator of a number of clinical trials, such as the Digitalis-Captopril Trial (300 patients), Studies of Left Ventricular Dysfunction (SOLVD - 6,700 patients), Pravastatin Limitation of Atherosclerosis in the Coronary Arteries (PLAC Study - 600 patients), QUIET Study (1,750 patients), Prevent Trial (600 patients), Reflect II Trial (300 patients), RALES trial (3,200 patients), Ephesus (6,400 patients), ELITE II (3,000 patients), and EMPHASIS-IF (2737 patients) and is the recipient of the Herrick award from the American Heart Association. Dr Pitt’s has been consulting for companies such as Warner Lambert Company, Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Nova Pharmaceuticals, Gensia Pharmaceuticals, Centocor Pharmaceuticals, Boots Pharmaceuticals, Ivax Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacia, Merck, Novartis, Takeda, Bristol Myers Squibb, and others. Carl J. Pepine, MD Dr. Pepine is Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the College of Medicine in New Jersey. Dr. Pepine is an internationally recognized leader in both the clinical and scientific areas of cardiovascular medicine. His major interests focus on the pathophysiology of ischemic heart disease and coronary and systemic vascular hemodynamic mechanisms underlying the disease. He is principal investigator for the UF center for the NHLBI-funded Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) and the UF center for the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN). He has been or is the PI for many investigator initiated clinical trials. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Master physician of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), a Gifted Teacher Award from the Florida Chapter ACC, University of Florida College of Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award, the Theodore E. Woodward award from the American Clinical and Climatological Association, the Paul Dudley White award from the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, the Clinical Faculty Prize in Research from the University of Florida College of Medicine as well as a University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship. Dr. Pepine is a member of the American Clinical and Climatological Association (ACCA), American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), and Association of University Cardiologists (AUC). He is a fellow of European Society of Cardiology (ESC), American Heart Association (AHA), Councils on Circulation and Clinical Cardiology, and the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions. He is a past president of the ACC and member of the Board of Trustees. He is currently serving or has served on numerous ACC/AHA Task Forces and Committees and is the founder and overall Project Chair for the Vascular Biology Working Group (VBWG). Dr. Pepine has co-authored over 650 original contributions to the scientific literature in cardiovascular medicine. He serves or has served on numerous editorial boards, including American Heart Journal, American Journal of Cardiology, American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology, Cardiovascular Therapeutics, Circulation, Clinical Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Journal of Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine and Cardiac Catheterization and Cardiovascular Diagnosis. He is the Medical Editor of Today in Cardiology. He has authored/edited numerous textbooks including, Acute Myocardial Infarction (F.A. Davis, 1989); Diagnostic and Therapeutic Cardiac Catheterization (Williams and Wilkins, 1989; second edition, 1994; third edition, 1998); Medical Therapy of Ischemic Heart Disease: Nitrates, Beta Blockers, and Calcium Antagonists (Little Brown and Company, 1992); and CathSAP (1999). Emerson C. Perin, M.D., Ph.D., FACC. Dr. Perin is Director of CV Medicine Research and Medical Director of the Stem Cell Center at the Texas Heart Institute. He holds academic appointments at Baylor and at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston (UTMSH). Dr. Perin received his medical degree from Federal U. Rio Grande Do Sul in Brazil, and received specialty training at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida and at the Texas Heart Institute. His specialty interests are in cutting-edge interventional cardiology and cardiovascular clinical and translational stem cell therapy. Arshed A. Quyyumi, M.D., FRCP, FACC. Dr. Quyyumi is Professor of Medicine, Cardiology, at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Quyyumi was Senior Investigator and Director, Cardiac Catheterization Lab, at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Quyyumi received his medical degree from the University of London, England. He completed his residency at Guy’s Hospital, London, and fellowships at National Heart Hospital, London; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Quyyumi’s research focus includes vascular biology, angiogenesis, progenitor cell biology, mechanisms of myocardial ischemia, and the role of genetic and environmental risks on vascular disease. He is the recipient of numerous awards and has published over 160 articles in peer reviewed journals. Edmund K. Waller , MD, PhD, FACP Dr. Waller is a Professor of Medicine, Hematology/Medical Oncology and Pathology at aEmory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Waller earned his doctorate at the Rockefeller University in New York and his medical degree at Cornell University. He completed clinical oncology and research (Experimental Pathology with Irv Weissman) fellowships at Stanford University. He currently serves as Director of the Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Center of Emory University and as the Medical Director for the Stem Cell Processing Laboratory, Hemapheresis Department, and Associate Director of Research of the Winship Cancer Institute. Dr. Waller’s research focuses on optimizing antitumor immunity in cancer patients. He has received funding from the NIH (RO1, PO1), LLS, and NMDP. He is developing novel strategies of regulating immune responses by studying the interaction between T cells and dendritic cells. His work includes novel approaches to reduce the ability of donor T-cells to cause graft versus host disease and graft engineering to select donor dendritic cells that enhance graft versus leukemia activities. He has expertise in graft engineering, stem cell selection, and adoptive immunotherapy to treat cancer patients. Dr. Waller is the author of more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and 5 patents. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including a semi-finalist in the 2002 Entrepreneur Award sponsored by the Walter Coulter Foundation, a Clinical Scholar Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a Clinical Investigator Award from the Cancer Research Institute, and a Clinical Scientist Award from the Doris Duke Foundation. He reviews government grants as a member of the Clinical Oncology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health and reviews manuscripts for Blood, Experimental Hematology, Biology of Blood & Marrow Transplantation, Transplantation, New England Journal of Medicine, and Cancer. James T. Willerson, M.D. Dr. Willerson is a Edward Randall Professor of Medicine at UT Health Science Center at Houston. Formerly, Dr. Willerson served as the President of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston for seven years, where he is also the Alkek-Williams Distinguished Professor and holds the Edward Randall III Chair in Internal Medicine. In October 2004, Dr. Willerson was named President-Elect of the Texas Heart Institute. A renowned cardiologist, he has served as visiting professor and invited lecturer at more than 200 institutions worldwide. Through his most recent research, he and his colleagues at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston and at the Hospital Procardico in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2001 began bone marrow-derived stem cell transplantation directly into the hearts of patients with severe heart failure resulting in demonstrated evidence of clinical improvement, enhanced blood flow, and improved contractile function. Joseph C. Wu, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, FAHA Dr. Wu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine (Cardiology) and Department of Radiology at the Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Wu received his M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine and completed his medicine residency and cardiology fellowship training followed by a PhD (molecular pharmacology) at UCLA. Dr. Wu has received several awards, including the ACC/GE Career Award in Cardiovascular Imaging (2006), Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Career Award in Medical Sciences (2007), Baxter Foundation Faculty Scholar Award (2008), NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2008), Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award (2009), NIH Roadmap Transformative R01 Award (2009), and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) awarded by President Obama (2010). His lab focuses on research in stem cell biology, gene therapy, genomics, and molecular imaging. The Wu lab is interested in understanding the biological mechanisms of adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells. We use a combination of gene profiling, tissue engineering, physiological testing, and molecular imaging technologies to better understand stem cell biology in vitro and in vivo. For adult stem cells, we are interested in monitoring stem cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation. For embryonic stem cells, we are currently studying their tumorigenicity, immunogenicity, and differentiation. For induced pluripotent stem cells, we are working on novel derivation techniques. We also develop novel vectors and therapeutic genes for cardiovascular gene therapy applications.