• Professor of Practice, Biomedical Engineering
  • Cain Faculty Fellow
  • Director, Research - Translational & Industrial Research, Biomedical Engineering
  • Deputy Executive Director, Principal Investigator and Co-Founder, FDA Southwest Pediatric Devices Innovation Consortium
  • Affiliated Faculty, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Balakrishna Haridas

Educational Background

  • • Executive Certificate, Biodesign/Managing Innovation, Stanford University,
  • Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati – 2001
  • M.S., Engineering Mechanics, University of Alabama
  • B.E., Civil Engineering, Bangalore University, India

Research Interests

  • Areas of interest: Minimally invasive surgery, endovascular devices, tissue repair, biodesign, clinical & regulatory strategy

    Dr. Haridas is a medical device researcher, innovator, and entrepreneur with 30+ years of industrial and academic experience in research, development, and commercialization of FDA Class II and III medical devices for minimally invasive surgical/endovascular interventions, soft tissue repair biomaterials & implants, drug delivery systems, and AI/ML platforms for medical devices. He has led multiple med-tech ventures and led/participated in driving 18 products through 510k/PMA FDA-CE regulatory clearances & approvals and subsequent licensing/manufacturing distribution deals. Haridas also has significant experience envisioning research strategies, creating, and raising industry and government funding and directing public-private translational research consortia (highlights below).

    His current research interests and projects are in the following areas

    • Pediatric & Fetal Surgery
      • Bioresorbable polymeric fixation device for prevention chorio-amniotic membrane detachment
      • Fetal cardiac surgery devices and implants for treatment of congenital defects
      • AI/ML platforms for Type 1 diabetes and Pediatric Cardiology/Intensive Care
    • Minimally invasive surgery technologies
      • Percutaneous fetal surgery systems
      • Mechanobiology of tissue damage during intraoperative surgical manipulation
      • Energy-tissue effects and interactions
    • Advanced Biomaterials/Implantable Devices
      • Biostable and bioresorbable polymeric and metallic devices for soft tissue repair
      • In vitro and in vivo degradation mechanisms in magnesium alloys

    At Texas A&M, Dr. Haridas has served in multiple leadership roles over the years, including Executive Director for the Division of Commercialization & Entrepreneurship for A&M Engineering, & former Director of the BioInnovation Master’s Program. Prior to joining Texas A&M, Dr. Haridas was Senior Director of R&D/Innovation for Johnson & Johnson, director of the Medical Device Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program, the Master of Engineering program, and associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Haridas' career prior and/concurrent to these appointments includes the following: Senior vice-president of Engineering for Shape Memory Medical (spin out of Texas A&M); president and founder of Device & Implant Innovations LLC; chief technology officer of Biomerix Corporation (acquired by DSM Biomedical); founder and director of the NSF/IUCRC Minimally Invasive Medical Technologies Center (MIMTeC); and principal/partner and director at Stress Engineering Services Inc.

    During his career, Dr. Haridas has raised and directed over $100 million in funding for product R&D and commercialization from industry, government (NSF/NIH) and venture capital sources. For his work in biomedical engineering & medical devices he was recently recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering (2019) and inducted as a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (2019).

Awards & Honors

  • Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (NAI, 2023).
  • Cain Faculty Fellow, Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 2021-2023
  • Fellow, American Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE, 2019)
  • Senior Member, National Academy of Inventors (NAI, 2019).
  • Co-Chair, Texas A&M New Ventures Competition (https://texasnvc.org/), 2015-2019
  • R&D 100 Award, IMPEDE™ Peripheral Embolization Device, 2019
  • Chair, Medical Technologies for Pediatric Interventions, Design of Medical Devices Conference, 2018
  • Golden EGG (Engineering Grant Genesis) Award for $40M NSF Engineering Research Center PATHS UP, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, 2017.
  • Master Educator Award, University of Cincinnati 2014
  • Professor of the Semester, University of Cincinnati, 2015
  • Professor of the Year (Nominee), University of Cincinnati, 2015
  • National Juror, Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA), 2009-2011, 2012-2014
  • Session Chair, Biomaterials & Regenerative Medicine, ASME Design of Medical Devices 2010, Minneapolis, MN. 2010.
  • Co-Chair, Medical Device Innovation Bootcamp, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH September 2010.
  • Plenary Speaker, Materials Week, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, September 2010.
  • Graduate Council Fellow & Research Fellow, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Univ. of Alabama, (1990-92)

Selected Publications

  • Byju AG, Diemer A, Luk C, Heffernan MJ, Belfort MA, Simons BW, Koh CJ, Haridas B, Espinoza J (BH, JE joint senior authorship), The ChorioAnchor: Design and testing of a novel chorioamniotic anchoring device to enable percutaneous fetoscopic surgery, Fetal Diagnosis & Therapy, 2022 DOI: 10.1159/000525768
  • Dave D, Erraguntla M, Lawley M, DeSalvo D, Haridas B, McKay S, Koh C; Improved Low-Glucose Predictive Alerts Based on Sustained Hypoglycemia: Model Development and Validation Study. JMIR Diabetes. 2021 Apr 29;6(2):e26909. https://doi: 10.2196/26909. PMID: 3391381 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33913816/ )
  • Sun RC, Kamath I, Byju A, Wettergreen M, Heffernan M, Wilson R, Haridas B, Koh CJ, Advancing Pediatric Medical Device Development via Non-Dilutive NIH SBIR/STTR Grant Funding, J of Pediatric Surg, January, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2021.01.025
  • Dave D*, DeSalvo D, Haridas B, McKay S, Shenoy A, Koh CJ, Lawley M, Erraguntla M, Feature based machine learning model for real-time hypoglycemia prediction, J Diabetes Sc Tech, June 2020, https://doi.org/10.1177/1932296820922622.
  • Karkhanis T*, Rao M, Zafar F, Morales DL, Haridas B, Novel Bio-Synthetic Graft for Tracheal Reconstruction in Pediatric Patients with Congenital Tracheal Stenosis: In Vitro Studies of Axial, and Bending Biomechanics, ASME Frontiers in Biomedical Devices, April 2019. https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/BIOMED/DMD2019/volume/41037
  • Sack BS, Elizondo RA, Huang GO, Janzen N, Espinoza J, Sanz-Cortes M, Dietrich JE, Hakim J, Richardson ES, Oden M, Hanks J, Haridas B, Hury JF, Koh CJ: Pediatric medical device development by surgeons via capstone engineering design programs, J of Pediatric Surgery, 2017 Feb 6. pii: S0022-3468(17)30100-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2017.01.067