Leonard Pinchuk Biography

Leonard Pinchuk is a distinguished research professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami. An inventor and entrepreneur in biomedical engineering, he has cofounded ten companies where his major accomplishments include the invention of the Nylon 12 angioplasty balloon, helical wire stent, modular stent-graft, a drug-eluting stent (TAXUS®), several biomaterials (Bionate and poly(styrene-block-isobutylene-block-styrene) [SIBS]), a novel glaucoma tube (the InnFocus MicroShunt®), and the next-generation intraocular lens.

Pinchuk started his career at Cordis Corporation in 1983, leaving in 1987 to cofound Corvita Corporation, where his team developed the angioplasty balloon and advanced the field of vascular and stent-grafs. Corvita went public in 1994, was acquired by Pfizer, Inc., in 1996, and then sold to Boston Scientific Corporation in 1998. Desiring to return to the startup setting, Pinchuk founded Innovia LLC in 2002, incubating many companies in the fields of intraocular lenses, glaucoma shunts, radiation oncology, urology, gene therapy, and others. In 2016, Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. acquired Pinchuk’s current company, InnFocus, Inc., where he is now chief scientific officer.

In 2017, Pinchuk received the Society for Biomaterials Innovation and Technology Award and the BioMed SA Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2012 and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2007.

Pinchuk, who has 128 U.S. patents and has authored ninety publications, holds a B.S. in chemistry from McGill University, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in engineering and chemistry from the University of Miami, and an honorary Ph.D. from McGill University.