A William S. Hart High School graduate and Santa Clarita native was recently named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 2020 list of healthcare professionals.

Doug Bernstein, CEO of PECA Labs and a graduate of Hart High School, was recently recognized for his innovative work in the healthcare industry by Forbes Magazine, recognizing him as a part of the 2020 class of Forbes 30 Under 30 young professionals.

Bernstein was raised in the Santa Clarita Valley, and graduated from Hart High School in 2008 before going to attend Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), receiving a B.S. in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering in 2012.

His interest in the medical field started early, as Bernstein himself was born with a severe congenital heart defect that left his chances of survival without surgery miniscule. As he grew older, Bernstein fell naturally into scientific academia

“I was reading books about DNA and genetics in like 2nd grade, and at CMU I initially started studying medical microrobotics,” said Bernstein. “But I decided that was a little too far down the line and then started doing research on heart valves.”

In 2012, Bernstein — alongside his future co-founders, CFO Jamie Quintero and CSO Dr. Arush Kalra — started work on establishing PECA Labs, a Pittsburgh-based company aimed at designing and developing medical devices for pediatric cardiac surgeons and the child patients who need them the most.

“When we were starting, and people saw how old we were saw the area we were working in… it wasn’t something they took seriously,” said Bernstein. “But now here we are and seeing that is very exciting.”

Forbes describes Bernstein and his fellow members of the 30 Under 30 list as “proof positive that the future will be new, exciting and profoundly different,” according to the official website PECA Labs currently manufactures cardiovascular devices for children with heart defects that can be adjusted without invasive surgery as the children grow.

PECA Labs’ MASA Valve utilizes synthetic materials to avoid the problems of immune response and calcification, issues that often often occur using common human or animal tissue replacement valves, especially in children, according to Bernstein.

“We expect it to be the first fully synthetic valve on the market once it gets approved, and that provides a variety of benefits,” said Bernsetin. “We expect the interactions (between the patient and MASA) in the short term and the long term functionality to be greatly improved.”

Bernstein mentioned that the MASA Valves’s synthetic makeup is the key to it’s improved functionality, as one of the main ways of treating disagreement between a new biological valve and the patient is using an anticoagulant.

“Anticoagulants are too harsh, especially for kids, their bodies just can’t handle it,” said Bernstein. “One of our points of study is creating a conduit that could grow with the child without requiring additional surgeries.”

Another PECA Labs product, the exGraft vascular graft, used to patch damaged or infected arterial walls reportedly shows remarkable versatility for a product of its type in the way that it was designed specifically to work with current surgery techniques, along with the addition with radiopaque markings to monitor growth and development — allowing medical professionals to keep an eye on their patients’ progress via x-ray without requiring surgery.

“It works just like any other graft, a surgeon knows what to do with it,” said Bernstein. “That’s very important, not just to the patient, but also to surgical practice, when you go in and change how people have to work along with the technology… that creates a whole set of other problems.”

The goal of PECA Labs is to improve cardiovascular pediatric treatment, not by revolutionizing the process, but by streamlining the equipment, said Bernstein.

Bernstein stated that seeing the steady growth at PECA Labs and continued success of their product has been one of the most gratifying parts of his professional career.

“We’ve been growing every month with the number of sales, they keep going up,” said Bernstein. “I’m definitely looking forward to working on the MASA Valve and getting that out and it’s pretty exciting.”

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