The Researchers
Laman
A. Gray, Jr., MD
Dr.
Laman Gray, Professor of Surgery and Director of the Division of
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University
of Louisville School of Medicine, is co-principal investigator
for the Jewish Hospital/University of Louisville AbioCor research
team.
Dr. Gray,
a Louisville native, received his Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction
in chemistry from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut
where the American Chemical Society honored him for Outstanding
Work in Organic Chemistry. He then received his M.D. from Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. His completed his training
with an internship and residencies in general and thoracic surgery
at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Gray
joined the faculty and staff of the University of Louisville and
Jewish
Hospital in 1974 and was named Acting Chairman of the Division
of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery the following year. He has
been Director of the Division since 1976, and has served as president
of the Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Chest Physicians,
the Greater Louisville Division of the American Heart Association
and the Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.
Under his leadership, the Division’s faculty has conducted
ground-breaking research in minimally invasive and beating-heart
cardiac surgeries, cardiomyoplasty, pre-transplant organ preservation
and mechanical heart devices.
Dr. Gray
is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of cardiac
surgery and development of artificial hearts and circulatory support
systems. Dr. Gray’s outstanding accomplishments include performing
the first heart transplant in Kentucky (1984) and the first bridge
to heart transplant after the use of a Thoratec Bi-Ventricular Assist
Device in the United States (1985).
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Laman A. Gray, Jr., M.D. (Right) and Robert
D.
Dowling, M.D. (Left)
He was
also an original investigator for the Novacor Ventricular Assist
Device System. In 1992 he performed the first clinical use of ABIOMED’s
SupraCor IABP and was one of the four primary clinical investigators
that brought ABIOMED’s BVS-5000 temporary cardiac support system
to clinical approval by the FDA.
He has been
the Director of the University of Louisville School of Medicine’s
Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery for more than 20
years and is a founding member of the Jewish Hospital Heart and
Lung Institute. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife.
He has three grown daughters.
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