Edelman was raised in the greater Boston area. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and in Applied Biology, and a master's degree in EECS. He earned his M.D. degree with distinction from Harvard Medical School and Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics within the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He conducted his Ph.D. thesis work under the direction of Robert Langer to define the mathematics of regulated and controlled drug delivery. Edelman completed his medical training at Brigham and Women's Hospital and is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology. Following this, he spent six years as a research fellow under the tutelage of Prof. Morris J. Karnovsky to work on the biology of vascular repair.[10] Edelman and his wife, Cheryl, have 3 children: Alex, A.J., and Austin.
Research
Edelman is a major advocate of multidisciplinary research.[11][12] Through his research centers, he combines teams of clinicians, engineers, and scientists from both academia and industry to create highly effective and clinically relevant solutions to medical problems.[13] Through this approach, Edelman and his students have been credited as some of the key contributors and pioneers of the coronary stent. They critically aided in the development, characterization, and optimization of the first bare-metal stents and subsequent iterations including drug-eluting stents.[14][15] Edelman's research programs fall in the following general categories:[10]
polymer-based controlled and modulated drug delivery
vascular biology, glycobiology, and growth factor biochemistry
tissue engineering
biomaterials and tissue interactions
device biology
Awards and honors
Edelman has authored or co-authored more than 680 original scientific publications, holds some 80 patents, and has trained more than 300 students and post-doctoral fellows. He has served on several advisory boards including the Science Board to the Food and Drug Administration.[10][16]