Penn
State College of Medicine's Gus Rosenberg
Named 2002 Engineer of the Year by Design
News Magazine
Gerson (Gus) Rosenberg, Ph.D., Jane A.
Fetter Professor of Surgery, professor of
bioengineering, chief, Division of
Artificial Organs at Penn State Milton S.
Hershey Medical Center and Penn State
College of Medicine, and a pioneer in the
design and development of pumps to
assist-or replace-failing hearts, has
been named 2002 "Engineer of the
Year" by the readers of Design News
magazine. Design News is read twice
monthly by 335,000 engineers who design
products ranging from autos to
spacecraft. It is published by Cahners
Publishing Co., Newton, Mass.
Rosenberg has worked on
heart-assist pumps since 1970, when he
joined the Penn State research team as a
graduate student. He earned his B.S.,
M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical
engineering from Penn State.
 U.S. clinical trials began for the
Rosenberg team's implanted Left
Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD),
manufactured by commercial partner Arrow
International, Inc., when in Feb. 2001,
Penn State's Walter E. Pae, Jr.,
successfully implanted the left
ventricular assist system for the first
in the United States. Called the Arrow
LionHeart™, it is the first LVAD
powered by wireless electric
transmission. LionHeart TM is intended to
help a large population that is
ineligible for transplant and for whom
medical therapy has failed. Surgeons in
Europe have been implanting the device in
clinical trials since 1999.
Rosenberg said that LVADs represent
less risk to patients, both in surgery
and later on. "With an LVAD, if
there is a component failure, a patient
can still rely temporarily on their own
heart until the problem is solved,"
he said, "and because no wires or
tubes protrude through the recipient's
skin, the system reduces the chances for
serious infection. LionHeart TM is
intended to help this much larger
population that is ineligible for
transplant and for whom medical therapy
has failed.
 Rosenberg's team also has an
electro-mechanical total artificial heart
that is very close in concept to its LVAD.
Rosenberg has found another commercial
partner, Abiomed, Danvers, Mass., for
this device. Abiomed developed AbioCor, a
total artificial heart driven by an
electro-hydraulic system that Time
magazine called the "2001 invention
of the year." Abiomed plans to do
clinical trials in 2004 of a smaller
version of the Penn State heart, suitable
for women and children.
Abiomed CEO David Lederman said of
Rosenberg, "Gus is one of the
primary contributors to this field, and I
have tremendous respect for him. We were
competitors, but we also have shared a
lot of information over the years."
In November 2001, the New England
Journal of Medicine published the results
of a three-year landmark study comparing
survival rates of heart-failure patients
with LVADs, versus those who remained on
traditional drug therapies. The study
found that those with LVADs lived twice
as long and enjoyed a higher quality of
life.
After three decades in the field,
Rosenberg told Design News that it's a
bittersweet feeling to turn his technical
"babies" over to Arrow and
Abiomed for commercialization. But he
also knows that he and his team can now
pursue new advances in the technology.
 Rosenberg, the 15th Design News
"Engineer of the Year," was
honored at the annual Design News awards
dinner, Tues., Mar. 19, at the Ritz
Carlton Hotel, Chicago. His award
included a $25,000 educational grant from
the Torrington Company, Torrington,
Conn., which will go to the College of
Engineering, Department of Biomedical
Engineering at Penn State.
For more information on this story,
visit www.designnews.com.
Media interested in conducting phone
interviews with Dr. Rosenberg should
contact Janet Treuhaft, (773) 477-7918,
or David Salyers, (773) 935-3131. Photos
of the award presentation will be
available on Wednesday. Interested media
may request the photos on-line by
emailing Janet Treuhaft at TouchofTreuhaft@cs.com.
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