Joseph M. Forbess, MD

Education

1982-1986      B. A., Biology, Harvard College (Cum Laude)

1986-1990       M.D., Harvard Medical School

2014-2016       M.B.A., University of Texas at Dallas School of Management

Post Graduate Education and Training

1990-1991       Internship, Duke University Medical Center

1991-1992       Residency, General and Thoracic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center

1992-1994       Fellowship, Cardiovascular Surgery, Boston Children’s Hospital

1994-1996       Residency, General and Thoracic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center

1996-1997       Residency, General Surgery, Duke University Medical Center

1997-1999       Fellowship, Thoracic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

NAME: Forbess, Joseph M.

eRA COMMONS USER NAME (credential, e.g., agency login): JFORBE

POSITION TITLE: Professor of Surgery Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery

EDUCATION/TRAINING

1. Personal Statement
2. Wang J, Zhang QJ, Pirolli TJ, Liu ZP, Powell L, Thorp EB, Jessen M, Forbess JM. Cardio-omentopexy Reduces Cardiac Fibrosis and Heart Failure After Experimental Pressure Overload. Ann Thorac Surg. 2019 May;107(5):1448-1455. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2018.11.019. Epub 2018 Dec 12. PMID: 30552887; PMCID: PMC6478504.
3. Ge Z, Boyd R, Lantz C, Thorp EB, Forbess JM. Cardio-Omentopexy Requires a Cardioprotective Innate Immune Response to Promote Myocardial Angiogenesis. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg Open. In Press.

 Myocardial regeneration offers the possibility, previously thought impossible or highly unlikely, for the heart to “heal” and regain or at least maintain adequate cardiac performance after cardiac injury.  Recently, we have examined the effects of cardio-omentopexy(COP), wherein the pedicled greater omentum is surgically affixed to the surface of the left ventricle, in a myocardial pressure overload injury model(Thoracic Aortic Constriction:TAC) in both rats and mice.  When performed some weeks after TAC, COP has been observed to reverse myocardial fibrosis, increase capillary density, and reduce myocardial hypertrophy with a corresponding improvement in myocardial function on echocardiography.  Our latest work in mice has also shown that macrophage depletion eliminated the beneficial effects of COP.  In order to trial this potential therapeutic strategy in humans, we are planning to perform COP in a porcine model of clinically relevant right ventricular(RV) injury.  In brief, a transmural right ventricular free wall cryo-lesion will be created. Experimental animals will have the pedicled greater omentum affixed to the injured area at that same procedure.  Histologic and functional analysis of these animals versus a cryo injury alone control group will ensue at various time points.  We hypothesize that COP might mitigate the deleterious effects of the transmural myocardial injury.  Transmural RV injuries such as this are seen in congenital heart patients requiring incisions on their RV free wall as part of their repair.  It is our plan to trial COP in human patients if the preclinical porcine model demonstrates a beneficial effect.

1. Position and Honors
2. John Harvard Scholarship

Positions

1999    Assistant in Cardiovascular Surgery                          Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA

2000    Associate in Cardiovascular Surgery                          Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA

2002    Cardiothoracic Surgeon                                            Emory Hospitals, Atlanta, GA

2004    Vice Chair, Cardiothoracic Surgery                             Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

2004    Chair, Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery       UT Southwestern Children’s Hospital

2004    Active Attending                                                       Parkland Hospital System, Dallas

2005   Assoc. Attending, CT Surgery                                     UTSW – St. Paul, Dallas, TX

2006   Active Attending                                                        Parkland Hospital System, Dallas

2006    Dir. CT Surgery                                                         Children’s Medical Center Dallas

2006    Active Attending                                                        UTSW – St. Paul, Dallas, TX 

2006    Consultant                                                                Methodist Dallas Hospital, Dallas, TX

2009    Consultant                                                                Odessa Reg. Med. Ctr., Odessa, TX

2009    Active                                                                       Dell Children’s Med. Ctr., Austin, TX

2009    Active - Univ. Med. Ctr. Brackenridge, Austin, TX    

2009    Active  - Seton Medical Center Austin, TX

2011    Program Dir., Reg. Heart Program- Dell Children’s Med. Ctr., Austin, TX

2012    Program Dir., Reg. Heart Program - El Paso Children’s Hospital, El Paso, TX                 

2016    Program Dir., Reg. Heart Program- Texas Health Presbyterian, Dallas, TX

2016    Chief, Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery - Oak Lawn & Park Ridge, IL

2016    Co-Director, Advocate Children’s Heart Institute                                                

2017    Associate Division Head and Attending Surgeon -  Ann & Robert H. Lurie Hospital Chicago, Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery                                                               

2018     Program Director, Congenital Cardiac Surgery- Ann & Robert H. Lurie Hospital Chicago

2018     Division Head and Attending Surgeon

2019     Attending Surgeon, Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery Rush University Medical Center

Academic Appointments

1999 - 2002           Instructor in Surgery - Harvard Medical School

2002 - 2004           Asst. Professor of Surgery – Emory University School of Medicine

2004 - 2011           Assoc. Professor of Surgery-UT Southwestern Medical Center Chairman, Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery Pogue Distinguished Chair in Pediatric                               Cardiac Surgery Research

2006 - 2011           Assoc. Professor of Pediatrics-UT Southwestern Medical Center

2011 - 2014           Professor of Surgery – UT Southwestern Medical Center, Chairman, Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery Pogue Distinguished Chair in Pediatric                                     Cardiac Surgery Research

2011 - 2016           Professor of Pediatrics – UT Southwestern Medical Center

2012 - 2016           Faculty Member – UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Division of Applied Science

2014 - 2016           Professor – University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular                                     Surgery, Pogue Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Research

2017– 2020           Professor of Surgery – Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

2018 – 2020          Professor of Pediatrics – Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

2021 - Current       Professor of Surgery-University of Maryland School of Medicine

2021 - Current Director of Children’s Heart Program- University of Maryland School of Medicine

Other Experience and Professional Memberships

2001              Member, Council on Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, American Heart Association

2001              Fellow, American College of Cardiology

2002              Fellow, American College of Surgeons

2002              Member, Southern Thoracic Surgical Association

2002              Member, Society of Thoracic Surgeons

2004              Member, Workforce on Annual Meeting, Society of Thoracic Surgeons

2004              Member, Congenital Heart Surgeons Society

2005              Member, Workforce on Annual Meeting, Society of Thoracic Surgeons

2006              Member, 21^st Century Cardiothoracic Surgical Society

2007              Founding Member, World Society for Pediatric Congenital Heart Surgery

2008              Member, Workforce on Annual Meeting, Society of Thoracic Surgeons

2009              Member, American Association for Thoracic Surgery

2009              Member, AATS Academy 2009

2010              Member, AATS Education Committee

2014              Member, CHSS Education Committee

Honors

1986                  Harvard College Scholarship

2006                  Meritorious Service Award, presented at the 2006 AmSECT Pediatric Conf., Atlanta, Georgia

2007                  Top Pediatric Specialists – named by D Magazine

2007                  Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education (TSFRE) scholarship – Leadership Program in Health Policy and Management at the Heller School                              for Social Policy/Management  Brandeis University

2011 - 2016        Best Pediatric Specialists – named by D Magazine

2017 - 2020        Best Pediatric Specialists – named by Chicago Magazine

2021- 2022         Best Pediatric Specialists – named by Baltimore Magazine  

1. Contribution to Science
2. Development of Biodegradable Stents for Treatment of Congenital Heart Disease.

Currently, many children with coarctation, pulmonary artery stenosis, etc. who can easily be treated with a stent are referred for surgical treatment because of the known long-term disadvantages associated with the use of a metal stent at a young age. There are no biodegradable stents available for use in the pediatric population. Our multidisciplinary team at UT Southwestern has formed the Biodegradable Stent research team. The goal of this team is to develop a BD stent that can be used to treat children with CHD that will drastically improve patient outcomes and avoid multiple surgical re-interventions. To our knowledge, we are one of the 3-4 research teams in the world who are currently working towards this goal. Our team has developed a novel design BD stent made of poly-l-lactic acid and this design allows us to fabricate larger diameter stents, needed for treatment of large size vessels like the pulmonary arteries and aorta. The results of our completed studies have led to subsequent evaluation of the stent in animal models. Evaluation of our novel design stent in porcine coarctation and pulmonary artery stenosis models and an additional long term study to evaluate vessels after complete biodegradation of the stent are currently underway

1)   Welch T, Eberhart RC, Veeram Reddy S, Wang J, Nugent A, Forbess J. Novel Bioresorbable Stent Design and Fabrication: Congenital Heart Disease Applications. Cardiovasc Eng Tech 2013; 4:171-182.

 2)   Veeram Reddy SR, Welch T, Wang J, Bernstein F, Richardson J, Eberhart R, Forbess J, Nugent A. A Novel Biodegradable Stent Applicable for Use in Congenital Heart Disease: Bench Testing and Feasibility Results in a Rabbit Model. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv 2014;83:448-56.

 3)   Veeram Reddy SR, Welch T, Wang J, Richardson J, Forbess J, Nugent AW. A novel design biodegradable stent for use in congenital heart disease: Mid-term results in rabbit descending aorta. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv. 2015;85:629-39.   

• Goodfriend AC, Welch TR, Barker G, Ginther R, Riegel MS, Reddy SV, Wang J, Nugent A, Forbess J. Novel bioresorbable stent coating for drug release in congenital heart disease applications. J Biomed Mater Res A. 2015;103:1761-70.
• The Utilization of Bilateral Pulmonary Artery Banding for Resuscitation and Stabilization Prior to Conventional First Stage Palliation for Critical Single Ventricle Congenital Heart Disease.

 Many children born with single ventricle heart defects and systemic outflow tract obstruction are still not diagnosed prenatally. They also may have low birth rate or syndromes which make conventional single ventricle palliation very high risk. Another high risk population are those patients with an intact atrial septum in utero. For any or all of these situations we have developed a strategy to implement an intermediate surgical stage for these patients wherein bilateral pulmonary artery bands are placed to increase the systemic output and decrease pulmonary blood flow.  We have now published our results utilizing this technique and feel it is a significant contribution to the field of congenital heart surgery.

• Guleserian KJ, Barker GM, Sharma MS, Macaluso J, Huang R, Nugent AW, Forbess JM. Bilateral pulmonary artery banding for resuscitation in high-risk, single-ventricle neonates and infants: A single-center experience. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2013 Jan;145(1):206-14. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2012.09.063.
• Welch TR, Eberhart RC, Reddy SV, Wang J, Nugent A, Forbess J. Novel Bioresorbable Stent Design and Fabrication: Congenital Heart Disease Applications. Cardiovasc Eng Technol. 2013. doi: 1007/s13239-013-0136-8. 

• Goodfriend AC, Welch TR, Barker G, Ginther R Jr, Riegel MS, Reddy SV, Wang J, Nugent A, Forbess J. Novel bioresorbable stent coating for drug release in congenital heart disease applications. J Biomed Mater Res A. 2014 Sep 8. doi: 10.1002/jbm.a.35313. PMID: 25196819.
• Large Animal Circulatory Arrest Models.

 During 2 research years as part of a hiatus in my clinical training I developed a quite reproducible survival model of hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass with circulatory arrest in immature pigs.  The development of this model was somewhat laborious but I was able to author a paper describing the initial use of this model. My laboratory mentor Richard A. Jonas MD, subsequently obtained an RO1 grant based upon this porcine model of cardiopulmonary bypass.  

• Forbess JM, Ibla JC, Lidov HG, Cioffi MA, Hiramatsu T, Laussen P, Miura T, Jonas RA. University of Wisconsin cerebroplegia in a piglet survival model of circulatory arrest. Ann Thorac Surg 1995; 60(6suppl):494-500.
• Stephens EH, Wolfe BL, Talwar AA, Patel A, Camarda JA, Eltayeb O, Monge MC, Forbess JM. Applicability and Durability of Valve-Sparing Tetralogy of Fallot Repair. World J Pediatr Congenit Heart Surg. 2021 Sep;12(5):628-634. doi: 10.1177/21501351211031242. PMID: 34597206.
• Wright J, Nguyen A, D'Souza N, Forbess JM, Nugent A, Reddy SRV, Jaquiss R, Welch TR. Bioresorbable Stent to Manage Congenital Heart Defects in Children. Materialia (Oxf). 2021 May;16:101078. doi: 10.1016/j.mtla.2021.101078. Epub 2021 Mar 19. PMID: 34109305; PMCID: PMC8184019.
• Glinton K, DeBerge M, Fisher E, Schroth S, Sinha A, Wang JJ, Wasserstrom JA, Ansari MJ, Zhang ZJ, Feinstein M, Leventhal JR, Forbess JM, Lomasney J, Luo X, Thorp EB. Bone marrow-derived AXL tyrosine kinase promotes mitogenic crosstalk and cardiac allograft vasculopathy. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2021 Jun;40(6):435-446. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2021.03.006. Epub 2021 Mar 13. PMID: 33846079; PMCID: PMC8169599.
• Pant T, Dhanasekaran A, Zhao M, Thorp EB, Forbess JM, Bosnjak ZJ, Benjamin IJ, Ge ZD. Identification and analysis of circulating long non-coding RNAs with high significance in diabetic cardiomyopathy. Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 28;11(1):2571. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-82345-7. PMID: 33510471; PMCID: PMC7843621.
• Becker AC, Lantz CW, Forbess JM, Epting CL, Thorp EB. Cardiopulmonary Bypass- Induced Inflammation and Myocardial Ischemia and Reperfusion Injury Stimulates Accumulation of Soluble MER. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2021 Sep 1;22(9):822-831. doi: 10.1097/PCC.0000000000002725. PMID: 33813548; PMCID: PMC8805604.

• Wolfe BL, Stephens EH, Tannous P, Kalinowski V, Lay AS, Forbess JM, Ramlogan SR. Obstructing Eustachian valve in a newborn presenting with profound hypoxemia and atrial arrhythmias. JTCVS Tech. 2020 Apr 11;3:265-266. doi: 10.1016/j.xjtc.2020.04.008. PMID: 34317895; PMCID: PMC8302921
• Qadir A, Tannous P, Stephens EH, Kalra A, Forbess JM, Nugent A. Use of a Dilatable exGraft Conduit in Single-Ventricle Palliation. Ann Thorac Surg. 2020 Aug;110(2):e131-e133. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2019.12.024. Epub 2020 Jan 25. PMID: 31991132.
• Stephens EH, Eltayeb O, Mongé MC, Forbess JM, Rastatter JC, Rigsby CK, Backer CL. Pediatric Tracheal Surgery: A 25-Year Review of Slide Tracheoplasty and Tracheal Resection. Ann Thorac Surg. 2020 Jan;109(1):148-153. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2019.06.042. Epub 2019 Aug 7. PMID: 31400322.
• Stephens EH, Tannous P, Mongé MC, Eltayeb O, Devlin PJ, Backer CL, Forbess JM, Pahl E. Normalization of hemodynamics is delayed in patients with a single ventricle after pediatric heart transplantation. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2020 May;159(5):1986-1996. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2019.09.135. Epub 2019 Oct 10. PMID: 31767361.
• Geoffrion TR, Pirolli TJ, Pruszynski J, Dyer AK, Davies RR, Forbess JM, Guleserian KJ. Mitral Valve Surgery in the First Year of Life. Pediatr Cardiol. 2020 Feb;41(2):334-340. doi: 10.1007/s00246-019-02262-5. Epub 2019 Dec 21. PMID: 31865441.
• Backer CL, Bharadwaj SN, Eltayeb OM, Forbess JM, Popescu AR, Mongé MC. Double Aortic Arch With Kommerell Diverticulum. Ann Thorac Surg. 2019 Jul;108(1):161-166. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2019.01.062. Epub 2019 Mar 5. PMID: 30849335
• Eltayeb OM, Readdy WJ, Mongé MC, Forbess JM, Sarwark AE, Patel A, Backer CL. Mitral Valve Replacement in Infants Using a 15-mm Mechanical Valve. Ann Thorac Surg. 2019 Aug;108(2):552-557. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2019.02.061. Epub 2019 Mar 27. PMID: 30928551. Pant T,
• Dhanasekaran A, Bai X, Zhao M, Thorp EB, Forbess JM, Bosnjak ZJ, Ge ZD. Genome-wide differential expression profiling of lncRNAs and mRNAs associated with early diabetic cardiomyopathy. Sci Rep. 2019 Oct 25;9(1):15345. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51872-9. PMID: 31653946; PMCID: PMC6814824.

1. Research Support

Completed Research Support:

2009 – 2014    Design and Development of a Novel Biodegradable Stent for Pediatric Applications. Internal funding, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Principal Investigator.

 2013 – 2014    Optimization of physiologic conditions for selective cerebral perfusion in immature piglets: a clinically relevant acute and survival model.  Internal funding,                              UT Southwestern Medical Center. Principal Investigator.

 2015 – 2017    Development of Large Diameter Biodegradable Stents for Congenital Heart Disease.   Funding NIH NHLBI R21HL129095. Co-Investigator.

 2015 – 2017     Novel Design Biodegradable Stent in Porcine Model of Aortic Coarctation.

Funding South West Affiliate Summer 2014 American Heart Association Beginning Grant-in-Aid (Award# 15BGIA22460027). Co-Investigator.

• Extracorporeal life support • Cardiopulmonary bypass • Thrombosis and hemostasis • Ex vivo organ perfusion and transplantation