Advisory Board

Helen has over twenty-five years’ experience in the Medical device industry including as CEO of Creganna Medical and Product Development and Research roles at Medtronic and Covidien. She has demonstrated the ability to scale, including driving international sales, acquiring and integrating companies, establishing strategic joint ventures and raising of debt and equity financing. During her eight years as CEO of Creganna Medical, the company grew five-fold to become the largest indigenous medical device company.

She now works with Irish companies supporting them to start and scale. She acts as a strategic advisor to Atlantic Bridge Ventures and serves as a director for Enterprise Ireland. She works as an advisor and director for a number of early stage and scaling companies and charities.

Professor Lewis, formerly VP R&D at BTG/Boston Scientific (Biocompatibles UK Ltd.) specializes in the development of advanced biomedical polymer systems, including novel drug-device combination products for use in interventional therapies in the treatment of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Many of his patented polymer systems have been successfully taken to market; directly or through license agreements. He led the development of the first commercial drug-eluting bead (DEB) technology for the locoregional treatment of malignancies in the liver. The DEB technology is now available globally with hundreds of thousands of procedures having now been performed.

Andy is a recognized expert on biomaterials; having generated over 250 scientific peer-reviewed publications and articles, 12 book chapters and 56 patent families/applications in the fields of polymers, biomaterials and drug delivery with 30+ granted patents in the field of embolization. He also peer-reviews manuscripts for over 25 journals.

Dr. Ari Isaacson received his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Following graduation, he served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Navy for 3 years, before completing his Diagnostic Radiology residency and Vascular and Interventional Radiology fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

During his 8-year tenure at UNC, Dr. Isaacson became a nationally recognized leader in embolization, rising to Director of Clinical research and Chief of the Vascular-Interventional Radiology Division. He collaborated with the FDA on the first U.S. clinical trial of GAE for knee osteoarthritis, and served as co-principal investigator of the landmark first U.S. sham-controlled GAE trial, which confirmed clinical efficacy beyond placebo.

In 2018, he co-founded STREAM, a renowned US national training conference dedicated exclusively to embolization. In 2021, he became Medical Director of IR Centers Raleigh, North Carolina, where he currently practices. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and serves as Chair of Quality and Research for Prostate Centers USA.

Professor Little qualified with distinction from Norwich medical school prior to training in medicine and surgery in Cambridge. In 2011 he was awarded the prestigious NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Clinical Radiology at Oxford, where he completed his interventional radiology fellowship.

He is recognised internationally for his work in Prostate Artery Embolisation (PAE), having helped introduce the procedure to the UK. He is currently Consultant Interventional Radiologist, research lead within the University Department of Radiology at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, and Professor of Radiology at the University of Reading.

In 2018, Professor Little initiated the first European study on Genicular Artery Embolisation (GAE) for knee osteoarthritis, the GENESIS study. He has since led GENESIS II, a double-blind, randomised sham-controlled trial. He was UK Chief Investigator for PROstate, an international long-term outcomes study of PAE, and serves as specialist advisor to NICE on interventional procedures, including developing clinical guidelines for GAE. He was the lead author on the 2025 first-in-human publication for SakuraBead and is a member of the CVIR editorial board.

His research has earned him the NIHR Rising Research Star Award in 2018, the CVIR Editor’s Medal in 2022, and JVIR Editor’s Award for Outstanding Clinical Research Paper, 2026.

Dr. Taslakian completed his medical degree at the University of Damascus and undertook his residency in radiology at the American University of Beirut. He subsequently pursued a three-year fellowship at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, specialising in Thoracic Imaging, Advanced Cardiac Imaging, and Interventional Radiology.

Dr. Taslakian currently serves as Associate Professor of Clinical Interventional Radiology and Vice Chair of Research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, with an adjunct faculty appointment at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Dr. Taslakian has made significant contributions to the evidence base for GAE. He led a systematic review and meta-analysis of GAE for knee osteoarthritis pain, published in 2023. He subsequently led a prospective trial examining the effects of GAE on pain and inflammatory biomarkers, published in JVIR in 2025. This work was recognised with the JVIR Editor’s Award for Outstanding Clinical Research.

Dr. Taslakian has authored over 60 peer-reviewed articles and multiple book chapters. He is a frequent invited speaker at major national and international conferences, including the GEST Annual Meeting  GEST MSK, VENTI, and the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) Annual Scientific Meeting.

Dr. Stewart is an Assistant Professor of Interventional Radiology at UCLA. She received her MD degree from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed her residency training in Diagnostic Radiology and fellowship in Vascular and Interventional Radiology at Duke University Hospital. Before joining UCLA, she was an assistant professor of Interventional Radiology at the University of North Carolina.

Dr Stewart’s interests include women’s health interventions, such as uterine artery embolization as well as venous embolization. Dr Stewart has been involved with several clinical trials and has conducted research on optimising the Genicular Arterial Embolization procedure for knee osteoarthritis.

Dr Casadaban is a board-certified vascular and interventional radiologist and is Assistant Professor of Interventional Radiology at University of Colorado. Dr Casadaban received her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, interned at Massachusetts General Hospital and completed her residency in Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and her fellowship with UCLA Medical Center program.

Dr Casadaban is widely recognized for her work in GAE, she was the author of the most referenced meta-analysis of the GAE procedure. This work compared the results of different techniques and patients from operators around the world to help identify and share good practice. Dr Casadaban is a regular presenter at global embolization conferences and has regularly lectured, on the techniques of the procedure, to her peers.

Dr. Padia earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in diagnostic radiology at the Cleveland Clinic, graduating as Chief Resident, before completing his fellowship in vascular and interventional radiology at Northwestern University. After spending several years practicing at the University of Washington, Dr. Padia joined the faculty at UCLA, where he is now a Professor of Radiology and the Director of Interventional Radiology.

A nationally recognised leader in musculoskeletal embolization, Dr. Padia has served as principal investigator on multiple U.S. clinical trials investigating GAE and MSK embolization, representing one of the largest clinical datasets for GAE in the United States. He is currently principal investigator of GRAVITY, a randomised controlled trial comparing GAE versus standard-of-care in 110 patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. His research has also expanded into additional areas of joint pain, including the publication of peer-reviewed work on elbow artery embolization for lateral epicondylitis.

Dr. Padia is also a leading authority on Yttrium-90 radioembolization for liver cancer, having treated over 800 patients and authored national treatment guidelines for the therapy. He serves as a consultant to leading medical device companies and is a member of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) steering group on GAE.

Dr Macaulay is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and the William and Susan Jaffe Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

He received his MD from Columbia University, completed his residency in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and his fellowship at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, specializing in joint replacement and minimally invasive techniques for hip and knee reconstruction. He is currently the Chief of Adult Reconstructive Surgery Division and Medical Director for International Patient Services, NYU Langone

Dr. Macaulay won the prestigious Lawrence D. Dorr Surgical Techniques and Technologies Award for his significant contributions to the field of hip and knee reconstructive surgery. His research focused on enhancing surgical recovery and improving outcomes for hip and knee replacement surgeries. He is a senior member of the prestigious US Hip Society and US Knee Society, in addition to many other professional organizations