Dr. William E. “Billy” Cohn is the Executive Director of the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. In addition, he is a tenured Professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Assist at Baylor College of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, the University of Houston, and Texas A&M. 

Dr. Cohn has a passion for medical device development, and has more than 150 U.S. patents granted or pending for his medical device innovations that have provided the core technology for eight venture-backed medical start-ups, four of which have been acquired and commercialized by large med-tech companies. 

Dr. Cohn is a co-founder of Anaxiom and has been intimately involved in every aspect of the company. Dr. Cohn was the Director of the legendary Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratory at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston for 14 years where he was, and continues to be, intimately involved in the development of the rotary-flow, totally implantable, artificial heart. In 2011, Dr. Cohn and Dr. O. H. Frazier successfully implanted the first pulseless total heart replacement device in a human patient. He now serves as the CMO of BiVACOR Inc. and Obvius Robotics.