PhD student flips script on research program

Most graduate students spend their first few years learning research processes before securing funding for their own projects. Not Duffy Elmer.

The first-year biomedical engineering doctoral student at the University of Arizona led SynCardia’s successful bid for a $606,498 one-year Small Business Innovation Research Phase I award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Elmer is pursuing his research while working full time as engineering project manager and head of sponsored programs at SynCardia. Marvin Slepian, a U of A professor of medicine and biomedical engineering, co-founded the Tucson-based artificial heart company. Under an agreement between SynCardia and the university, pending patent protection proprietary data can be released in Elmer’s dissertation.

While Elmer’s dissertation committee is not yet registered, it is slated to include Slepian, Jennifer Barton, Elmer’s adviser and the Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair of Biomedical Engineering, and cardiothoracic surgeon Francisco Arabia of the U of A College of Medicine.

“I came to the idea of merging my doctoral studies and industry job because as project manager at SynCardia there is a lot of complex engineering and design work,” said Elmer. “It’s doctoral dissertation-level work so I wanted to formalize that and capitalize on the educational opportunities at the university.”

Unlike SynCardia’s existing pneumatic artificial hearts, the Emperor Total Artificial Heart is meant to be fully implantable, requiring no external pump or power source. It is geared to patients whose hearts are failing on both sides. The NIH grant focuses on the Emperor’s internal pump.

“The core innovation here is to nail the mechanicals and the electricals of that pump before making it a fully implantable system,” said Elmer.

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In animal testing on a wirelessly charged and controlled desktop version of the Emperor, blood output rates matched those of the company’s pneumatic artificial heart.

From backpack to body

Since SynCardia’s existing heart received FDA approval in 2004, it has been implanted in 2,100 patients. Recipients leaving the hospital use a cart or backpack for the external pump and power supply. With the equipment in tow, some patients have even completed long-distance running and cycling events. For many, artificial hearts serve as a bridge to transplant.

“When a patient’s health has declined, they might be so sick they’re not transplant candidates,” said Elmer. “But with sufficient replacement blood flow from our device, they actually end up getting healthy enough to become candidates.”

Elmer earned his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, or BME, from the U of A in 2018 and has worked in industry since graduating. He joined SynCardia in 2023.

“He’s developing the next generation of the total artificial heart,” said Barton. “He brings years of experience in the highly regulated medical device industry and has generously shared his knowledge with other trainees in the BME program and beyond.”

Elmer said the fully implantable design should reduce the noise and mobility limitations of pneumatic devices, though full FDA approval remains a long-term goal.

“It’s going to be a big improvement on patient experience,” he said.