Professor Peter Zilla
Professor Zilla’s academic qualifications are an MD (University of Vienna), DrMed. (University of Zurich); PD; (University of Vienna) and PhD (University of Cape Town). He is a registered general-, vascular- and cardiothoracic surgeon. After 3 years in basic science (University Zurich 1981-1983); he did his surgical residency at the University Hospital Vienna (1983-1989) and senior-residency at the University Hospital Zurich (1989-1990); held staff-surgeon positions in Austria and Cape Town and has been Chair of the Chris Barnard Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery for two decades until 2021 when he became Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Scholar. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Medical University of Vienna.
He published 232 peer-reviewed full papers; holds 46 US/PCT patents and has an H-index of 63 /i10 of 195. He initiated the ‘Cardiac Surgery Intersociety Alliance (CSIA), an umbrella body uniting all major global cardiothoracic societies with the goal of fostering the surgical capacity of developing countries.
He had previously pioneered clinical cardiovascular tissue engineering in the 1990s culminating in >500 patients having received autologous in-vitro endothelialised vascular grafts convincingly showing the clinical potential of tissue engineering. His second research focus emerged out of the dire needs of developing countries to have long-lasting soft-leaflet heart valve prostheses available for the millions of largely young patients with rheumatic heart disease.
As an entrepreneur, he initiated an academic–industry partnership with Medtronic (from 1991-2011), generating 22 PCT/US patents with translational impact, including technologies commercialised in vascular graft support and bioprosthetic tissue treatment. He subsequently founded Strait Access Technologies (2012), advancing a differentiated transcatheter valve platform (including flow-permissive balloon systems), achieving FDA clearance for its TEVAR moulding balloon (2025), initiating US clinical use and first-in-human implants with their TAVR system, raising ~USD 33 million.