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Mario Romero-Ortega, Ph.D

Mario Romero-Ortega, Ph.D., serves as joint faculty in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine.

He is also the Cullen Endowed Professor and the director of undergraduate program in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the UH Cullen College of Engineering. In addition to teaching, he mentors undergraduate and graduate students in the Regenerative Neurobiology and Neuroelectronics Laboratory.

Winner of several teaching and industry awards, Romero-Ortega’s interests include nerve regeneration, peripheral neurointerfacing, spinal cord injury and bioelectronic medicines. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Bioelectronic Medicine, as associate editor of Frontiers in Neuroengineering, and, most recently, as bioelectronic medicines area editor on Brain Encyclopedia. In 2013, he received the Tech Titans Award in Technology Innovation.

Romero-Ortega is the co-founder and chief scientific officer of RBI Medical, a company that uses selective neuromodulation technology to treat pelvic health conditions, in the Greater Boston Area. He recently received the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center Award for Industry Partner for developing a nerve-stimulating device to treat urinary incontinence. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society’s Administration Nominations Committee.

Romero-Ortega holds an undergraduate degree in Biology from Guadalajara University in Mexico and earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Tulane University. He completed post-doctoral training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1999 and 2002 in nerve regeneration and developmental neurobiology.