Dr. Marc Pennis the CEO of Black Beret Life Sciences, LLC, (Houston, Texas) where he oversees the life science investments of the Bosarge Family Office and leads the executive teams of numerous companies including Tissue Genesis, LLC, (Honolulu, Hawaii), Advanced Regen Medical Technologies, LLC, (Newark, New Jersey), the novel sugar replacement, Sola®(Houston, Texas), and the Okyanos Center for Regenerative Medicine (Freeport, Bahamas). At Okyanos, he also serves as the director of Research and Strategy, working to advance stem cell therapeutics. He serves on the board of directors of Frantz Viral Therapeutics (Cleveland, Ohio) and Affigen (St. Louis, Missouri), and is an advisor to Diasome (Cleveland, Ohio).
Dr. Penn is a practicing cardiologist and director of research at the Summa Health Heart and Vascular Institute (Akron, Ohio), as well as director of the Institute’s Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship. He is also professor of medicine and integrative medical sciences at Northeast Ohio Medical University where he leads the Skirball Laboratory for Cardiovascular Cellular Therapeutics (Rootstown, Ohio). From 2000–2011, Dr. Penn was a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, where he served as the director of the Coronary Intensive Care Unit, director of the Experimental Animal Laboratory, director of the Bakken Heart–Brain Institute and the founding director of the Center for Cardiovascular Cell Therapy.
Dr. Penn completed his undergraduate and postgraduate work at Case Western Reserve University, earning a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering in 1989 and doctor of medicine degree in 1994. He performed his internal medicine training at University Hospitals of Cleveland and his cardiovascular medicine fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. He is board–certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular medicine.
Dr. Penn’s research has led to several innovations in the field of cardiovascular medicine including discoveries in diagnostics and drug delivery systems for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. He has developed strategies to optimize gene and stem cell therapy for regeneration of myocardial tissue, as well as neuromodulation of cardiac function. Dr. Penn is author or co–author of hundreds of articles and abstracts on a wide range of scientific and medical topics.
Dr. Penn is an active inventor and internationally recognized expert in translating basic science research to clinical populations. He is the Principal Investigator of the Athersys MultiStem®in AMI Phase I and II trials in Cleveland, Ohio. He has generated intellectual property in the fields of diagnostics, biologics and devices that has been licensed by numerous companies. In 2006, he was named Innovator of the Year at the Cleveland Clinic. He was the co–founder and CMO of Cleveland HeartLab, which was acquired in 2017 by Quest Diagnostics.
From 2008–2010, Dr. Penn served as the senior medical director for Emerging Businesses at Cleveland Clinic. He is recognized as one of the top 50 doctors in the history of the Cleveland Clinic (MedCity News, December 2011).