PITTSBURGH– PECA Labs announced that its co-founder and chief scientific officer, Dr. Arush Kalra, has been named to the Pittsburgh 40 Under 40 list by Pittsburgh Magazine and PUMP. The annual awards honor young professionals making significant contributions to the city through leadership, innovation, and community impact.
Dr. Kalra leads PECA Labs’ scientific and engineering programs, guiding development of the company’s polymeric cardiovascular devices designed to be durable, adaptable, and long-lasting. His work is driven by personal experience—his mother’s battle with cardiovascular disease—and by his early transition from medicine to medical device innovation while studying biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Together with fellow CMU graduates Doug Bernstein and Jamie Quinterno, he co-founded PECA Labs to advance treatment options in cardiothoracic surgery. Since 2018, he has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
“This recognition carries profound meaning, as it brings much-needed attention to the challenges faced by families confronting congenital cardiac defects and chronic adult cardiovascular diseases,” Kalra said. “Our mission is simple yet powerful: to develop innovative cardiovascular devices that provide patients with an improved quality of life and the chance to grow, thrive, and avoid repeat surgeries. It is an honor to be recognized alongside so many talented individuals who are making a meaningful impact in the Pittsburgh community—a place that has given so much to us at PECA Labs and continues to inspire our work.”
In 2024, PECA Labs expanded its operations by opening a new polymeric processing facility near UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood. The facility enables in-house manufacturing and faster scalability to meet rising demand for its cardiovascular implants.
