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Dr. Joe Alexander, Jr., NTT Research
Director, Medical and Health Informatics Laboratories
Conversations with Dr. Joe Alexander, Jr.
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Dr. Joe Alexander, Jr. Biography
Joe Alexander, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.C., is the Director of the MEI Lab at NTT Research. His background is in both engineering and medicine. After graduating with a degree in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University, he studied medicine as a fellow of the Medical Scientist Training Program at The Johns Hopkins University Medical School where he received both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. His Ph.D. is in Biomedical Engineering, where he specialized in cardiovascular dynamics, training with Dr. Kenji Sunagawa in the laboratory of the late Dr. Kiichi Sagawa. Immediately afterwards, he completed a fellowship in research cardiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine before additional training as a Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellow at Kyushu University. Joe then took academic faculty positions in Biomedical Engineering and in Medicine at Vanderbilt University while simultaneously completing a residency in Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt Hospital.
During that time, Joe also helped train astronauts like Dr. Chiaki Mukai for the Neurolab Spacelab Mission. He likewise collaborated with The National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center as a Visiting Researcher supported by the Science and Technology Agency of Japan. Following academia, Joe entered pharma – first Merck, then Pfizer. During his 18 years at Pfizer, he worked in various capacities including Field Medical Director, R&D, Business Development, and Medical Affairs. In pharma as in academia, his passion for modeling and simulation was evident throughout his work and extended across therapeutic areas. Joe is credited with creating several pharma modeling platforms including The Lyrica Virtual Lab, The Neuropathic and Neuropathic-like Pain Virtual Lab, and The Pulmonary Vascular Disease Virtual Lab. Finally, Joe is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and is very interested in heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, and medical devices.