Course Director for HST.973 and HST.979
Richard J. CohenRichard J. Cohen received his MD degree from Harvard Medical School in 1976 and his PhD in Physics in the same year from MIT. He pursued clinical training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in Internal Medicine and Cardiology. Since 1979 he has been on the MIT faculty where he is currently the Whitaker Professor in Biomedical Engineering within the Institute of Medical Engineering and Science.
For 25 years he served as an Associate Physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for ten years he directed the Center for Biomedical Engineering of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), and for eight years he was Team Leader of the Cardiovascular Alterations Team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. For eight years Dr. Cohen co-directed the Biomedical Enterprise Program of HST and the MIT Sloan School of Management. Students in this program obtained an MBA degree and an SM degree in Health Sciences and Technology preparing them for leadership positions in the biomedical industry.
Dr. Cohen’s research involves the application of physics and engineering to solving problems in biology and medicine, particularly in the cardiovascular area. His work ranges from computer simulations to animal studies to clinical investigations. Dr. Cohen has published over 250 scientific papers and has had over 30 US patents issued. One of the technologies developed in Dr. Cohen’s laboratory is the measurement of microvolt T-wave alternans to identify patients at risk of sudden cardiac death. This technology has been commercialized, cleared by the FDA, and is reimbursed under Medicare.
Dr. Cohen has directed his Division’s Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Principles of Pharmacology courses taken by both MD and PhD students. He has taught a variety of courses in biophysics, bioengineering, signal processing and in biomedical enterprise. He is interested in health, medicine, quantitative analysis, modeling, and biomedical enterprise.
For 25 years he served as an Associate Physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for ten years he directed the Center for Biomedical Engineering of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), and for eight years he was Team Leader of the Cardiovascular Alterations Team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. For eight years Dr. Cohen co-directed the Biomedical Enterprise Program of HST and the MIT Sloan School of Management. Students in this program obtained an MBA degree and an SM degree in Health Sciences and Technology preparing them for leadership positions in the biomedical industry.
Dr. Cohen’s research involves the application of physics and engineering to solving problems in biology and medicine, particularly in the cardiovascular area. His work ranges from computer simulations to animal studies to clinical investigations. Dr. Cohen has published over 250 scientific papers and has had over 30 US patents issued. One of the technologies developed in Dr. Cohen’s laboratory is the measurement of microvolt T-wave alternans to identify patients at risk of sudden cardiac death. This technology has been commercialized, cleared by the FDA, and is reimbursed under Medicare.
Dr. Cohen has directed his Division’s Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Principles of Pharmacology courses taken by both MD and PhD students. He has taught a variety of courses in biophysics, bioengineering, signal processing and in biomedical enterprise. He is interested in health, medicine, quantitative analysis, modeling, and biomedical enterprise.
MIT Lecturers for HST.973 and HST.979
Richard AndersRichard Anders is a seasoned entrepreneur who has had careers in computers, publishing and consulting, and has a strong personal focus on life sciences and life-science investing. He is the managing director of Rubin/Anders, a leading placement agency for scientific experts in major litigations. Previously, he founded Jurisoft, which he sold to Lexis/Nexis, published newspapers including Boston Digital Industry and New York Digital Industry, and was a founding trustee of the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council. Richard is a trustee of the Boston Museum of Science, a former trustee of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute and an overseer of the Gardner Museum. He is a member of the Institutional Review Board at the Dana Farber Cancer Center, which reviews clinical trials for the hospital. He founded the angel group Launchpad and founded and currently runs MA Medical Angels (MA2), one of the country's leading angel groups focused exclusively on life sciences. He currently serves on the board of Bliss Healthcare, is a board observer at Avaxia Biologics, and served on the board of Quosa, Inc. which was acquired by Elsevier Publishing. Richard teaches medical device entrepreneurship at the Harvard/MIT HST program. He is a graduate Summa Cum Laude in Mathematics from Harvard and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Carl Berke
Carl’s career has spanned over 25 years in the practice and management of innovation to bring new technologies from lab to market. As a bench scientist and R&D director, he worked at Polaroid Corporation and Hygeia Sciences in the development of photographic and clinical products for both consumer and professional markets – he is an inventor on 6 US patents. He served as a Partner at Integral/Analysis Group, a consulting firm, focusing on the management of innovation and growth strategy for clients in healthcare and consumer products. He has been an active private equity investor as a member of Angel Healthcare Investors LLC and is a founder of Mass Medical Angels. He has served on the boards of Quosa [research literature management software], Kasalis [robotics], Combinent [women’s health], Infobionic [cardiac monitoring] and the Sudanese Education Fund [philanthropy]. Carl holds an AB degree from Cornell University and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. He also holds an appointment as Lecturer in the Biomedical Enterprise Program in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Carl currently represents the Fund on the Boards of Annovation and Sebacia.
Josh Tolkoff
Josh has over thirty years of in-depth experience in research, development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs and general management of medical device companies. After a research engineer position at Mass General Hospital, Josh started his commercial career as the Vice President of Research and Development for Medi-Tech, which became Boston Scientific, and helped grow that company from 20 to 500 employees. Josh then went on to start two of his own companies, including ACT Medical, Inc., an outsourcing resource for medical device companies. He built ACT to over $25 million in sales and sold it to a publicly traded company in 2000. From 2000 to 2003, Josh served as a manager of Seedling Enterprises, an incubator created to find and develop early stage medical device concepts to a point of increased value. To date, Seedling has exited three of its investments at a significant gain and has spun off three additional projects as venture-financed companies. Josh is recognized as a leading figure in the Massachusetts medical device community and currently serves on the board of several privately held companies, and chaired MassMedic, a 300+ industry trade group. He received a BA from Harvard College and an MS in BioMechanics from MIT.