Norman Tarazona directs the preclinical research and development activities at Symphony Medical, Inc. Norman has 17 years experience in cardiovascular preclinical research both on the academic and industry aspects. Prior to joining Symphony Medical in February 2006, Norman was Director of Preclinical Research at Conor Medsystems, Inc, a drug eluting coronary stent company in Northern California. During his time there, he was responsible for the development of new preclinical research programs as well as being directly involved in the filings with the different regulatory entities in order to advance Conor technologies to the clinical research programs and the subsequent entry into the market. Before this, Norman was Director of Veterinary Sciences at GMP Companies, Inc. in Atlanta, GA. Coming on as the 5th employee of this start-up company and during his 5 year stay, he was responsible with starting a preclinical research program from scratch in various areas including: coronary stents, wireless EKG and implantable ocular devices for the treatment of glaucoma. Prior to his entry into the industry aspect of research, he began his career working for 9 years in academia developing new devices and treatments for angioplasty and restenosis. He began at Emory University and then received faculty appointments at the medical schools of Temple University in Philadelphia and Cornell University in New York. Norman obtained his DVM from La Salle University (Bogota, Colombia).