Professor Mohamad Bashir is a highly respected clinical academic surgeon with over 15 years’ experience in cardiovascular medicine, surgery and translational research. He holds the position of Professor of Clinical Research in Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of South Wales, UK and at the Institute of Cardiac and Aortic Disorders (ICAD) at SIMS Hospital, Chennai, India. His expertise includes complex aortovascular procedures and the fostering of international clinical and academic collaborations. Professor Bashir has an extensive, internationally recognised research portfolio. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Medical Devices: Evidence and Research, published by Taylor & Francis Publishing Group.
Professor Gabriele Piffaretti graduated with both a Bachelor’s and a Doctorate from the University of Insubria Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in Varese, Italy. He is a vascular surgeon with over 25 years of experience in clinical-academic research and education. His surgical expertise encompasses the entire spectrum of vascular procedures, with a particular focus on aortic diseases and cardiovascular networking. He currently serves as the Chief of the Vascular Surgery Residency Program at the University of Insubria Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.
Academically, he serves as President of the Board of Italian Associate Professors of Vascular Surgery. Through professorships across Europe and China, he has established extensive international collaborations in clinical and academic settings. He is a member of the Italian Society for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and serves as Associate Editor of the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, the official journal of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.
AORTIC LIVE Patron
Professor Heinz Jakob graduated from the Medical School of the Technical University in Munich and is a cardiac surgeon with extensive clinical experience in university hospitals across the United States, Switzerland and Germany. He serves as the emeritus director of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at University Hospital Essen in Germany, where he founded the West German Heart and Vascular Centre. Professor Jakob has authored and co-authored over 400 scientific publications, primarily focusing on complex aortic surgery, valvular interventions and advanced surgical revascularisation techniques. He has led initiatives to develop several innovative implantable cardiac and vascular devices, resulting in more than 10,000 implantations worldwide. Throughout his distinguished career, he has received numerous national and international awards for his significant contributions to the advancement of cardiac surgery.
Scientific Committee:
Professor Luca Bertoglio
Vascular Surgeon
Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences (DSCS), University and ASST Spedali Civili Hospital of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
Professor Edward P. Chen
Chief of Cardiac Surgery
Jefferson Abington Hospital. Professor - Department of Cardiac Surgery, Sidney Kimmel College of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA.
Dr Ben Adams
Consultant Cardiac & Aortic Surgeon
Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK.
Dr Mohammed Idhrees
Consultant Cardiovascular Surgeon
Institute of Cardiac and Advanced Aortic Disorders, SIMS Hospital & SRM Institutes for Medical Science, Chennai, India.
Professor Giovanni Pratesi
Chief of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery
Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, University of Genoa, Italy.
Professor Suk-Won Song
Director, Aorta & Vascular Hospital
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Dr Martin Teraa
Vascular Surgeon
Division of Surgical Specialities, University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands.
Professor Santi Trimarchi
Professor of Vascular Surgery
Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Professor Nikolaos Tsilimparis
Head of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital, Munich, Germany.
Professor Fabio Verzini
Vascular Surgeon
Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Turin, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy.
Live Case Surgeons
Prof. Nimesh Desai
Cardiac Surgeon
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
Prof. Stephan Haulon
Vascular Surgeon
Hopital Marie Lannelongue, Paris, France
Prof. Aung Oo
Cardiovascular Surgeon
Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK
Dr. Ben Adams
Cardiac & Aortic Surgeon
Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK
Prof. Luca Bertoglio
Vascular Surgeon
University and ASST Spedali Civili Hospital of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Prof. Edward P. Chen
Cardiac Surgeon
Jefferson Abington Hospital, Philadelphia, USA
Prof. Bashi Velayudhan
Cardiac & Aortic Surgeon
SIMS Hospital, Chennai, India
Dr. Mohammed Idhrees
Cardiovascular Surgeon
SIMS Hospital, Chennai, India
Prof. Giovanni Pratesi
Vascular Surgeon
Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy
Prof. Raffaele Pulli
Vascular Surgeon
Careggi University Teaching Hospital, Florence, Italy
Prof. Chang Shu
Cardiovascular Surgeon
Beijing Fuwai Hospital, Beijing, China
Prof. Ludovic Canaud
Vascular Surgeon
CHU de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Prof. Michele Antonello
Vascular Surgeon
University of Padua, Padua, Italy
Prof. Randolph Wong
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, China
Prof. Nikolaos Tsilimparis
Vascular & Endovascular Surgeon
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital, Munich, Germany
Prof. Brett Reece
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
University of Colorado Anschutz, Colorado, USA
Professor Fabio Verzini
Vascular Surgeon
Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Turin, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy.
Attending Faculty
Prof. Santi Trimarchi
Vascular Surgeon
Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
Professor Fabio Verzini
Vascular Surgeon
University of Turin, Turin, Italy
Dr. Martin Teraa
Vascular Surgeon
University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Prof. Suk-Won Song
Cardiovascular Surgeon
Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Korea
Dr. Giovanni Mariscalco
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, UK
Prof. Christoph A. Nienaber
Interventional Cardiologist
Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals, London, UK
Mr. Michael Sabetai
Cardiac Surgeon
St. Thomas' Hospital, London, UK
Prof. John Elefteriades
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Yale University & Yale New-Haven Hospital, Yale, USA
Dr. Nabil Saouti, MD PhD
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Dr. Marie-Elisabeth Stelzmueller
Cardiovascular Surgeon
Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Prof. Dr. Martin Czerny
Cardiovascular Surgeon
University Heart Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
Ms Professor Dr Nimrat Grewal MD, PhD
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dr. Christopher Gaffney
Senior Lecturer in Integrative Physiology
Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Prof. Daniel Wendt
Vice President Medical Cardio-Vascular
CytoSorbent Europe GmbH
Prof. Hazem El Beyrouti
Vascular Surgeon
Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar
Prof. Duke Cameron
Professor of Surgery
The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA
Chair, Professional Advisory Board, The Marfan Foundation
Mr. Amr Abdelhaliem
Vascular Surgeon
Blackburn Teaching Hospital, Blackburn, UK
Dr Hassan Ali Saoud Al Thani
Head of the Trauma, Vascular Surgery, and General Surgery Sections
Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar
Distinguished Guest
Prof. Damian Bailey
Professor of Physiology & Biochemistry
University of South Wales, Wales, UK
Professor Damian Miles Bailey
PhD FPVRI FRSC FACSM FTPS
Royal Society Wolfson Professor of Physiology
Damian is Royal Society Wolfson Professor of Physiology and Director of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of South Wales. Trained in human integrative physiology at the British Olympic Medical Centre and Oxford with postdoctoral fellowships in surgical and medical sciences at UC San Diego, Colorado, and Heidelberg, his work bridges fundamental physiology with translational clinical science.
His research focuses on the integrated regulation of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular function, with particular emphasis on reactive oxygen-nitrogen species, cerebral oxygen transport, and neurovascular ageing. He has published extensively in surgical pathophysiology, notably on ischaemia–reperfusion injury in stenotic vascular disease, adopting a systems-based approach that links cardiac performance, vascular function, and cerebral bioenergetics.
Bailey pioneered the first direct detection of free radicals across the human vasculature and leads innovative studies using extreme-environment models—including spaceflight, high altitude, freediving, and the first isolated extracorporeal pulsatile perfusion model of the human brain—to define mechanisms and limits of cerebrovascular vulnerability and resilience.
He has published over 400 papers (i10-index of 200) and is Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Physiology. He serves as Chair of the ESA Life Sciences Working Group and advises the European, UK and Swedish Space Agencies on human spaceflight and exploration science including surgery in space. Fun fact: he is a former Guinness World Record holder who has represented his country in both football and athletics—although he failed astronaut selection the year Tim Peake was successful.
TADCT Faculty
Mr. Graham Cooper
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust, UK
Catherine Fowler
Chair
The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust, UK
Martin Hilton
Aortic Dissection Survivor
The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust, UK
Dr. Bejal Pandya
Congenital Cardiologist
Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK
David Atree
Living with Marfan Syndrome
The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust, UK
Valérie Lechene
Aortic Dissection Survivor
The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust, UK
Adam Keeble
Paramedic
East of England Ambulance Service, UK
Bob Harris OBE
Broadcaster & Aortic Dissection Survivor
BBC, UK