Charlottesville, VA – Contraline, Inc., a venture-backed medical device company devoted to providing men with long-lasting, safe, and effective contraception has appointed medical device industry leader Dr. Yelena Tropsha to the role of Chief Technology Officer.

Dr. Tropsha brings to Contraline over 25 years of medical device experience, from front-end innovation to commercialization. Dr. Tropsha served for 10 years with Coloplast as Vice President of Implantable Devices, Urology where she was responsible for R&D, Clinical, Medical and Regulatory Affairs. Dr. Tropsha also held Vice Presidential positions with leading medical device companies DYSIS Medical and Neuronetics and senior technical positions at Medtronic and Becton Dickinson.

Over the course of her career, Dr. Tropsha has been involved in the development, approvals, and launches of 19 Class II and Class III medical devices in urology and gynecology. In addition to medical device development, her expertise is in materials science with emphasis on polymers and biomaterials. She is listed as an inventor on over 25 patents and 20 publications.

“Yelena joins our team at an exciting time ahead of our first-in-human clinical trial of ADAM™, the world’s first injectable hydrogel designed to provide long-lasting, non-permanent vas-occlusion for men,” said Kevin Eisenfrats, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Contraline.

“We are charting the path to bring a revolutionary reproductive medical device like ADAM™ to market. We are also beginning to expand the potential uses for our hydrogel platform. We will greatly benefit from Yelena’s experience leading numerous companies with innovative medical devices in urology and gynecology to successful regulatory and commercial outcomes.”

At Contraline, Dr. Tropsha will spearhead R&D, regulatory affairs, and market access. She will also lead efforts to expand use of Contraline’s proprietary hydrogel platform for new indications in reproductive health beyond vas-occlusion.

“I am excited and honored to be part of Contraline’s team, representing a new era in contraceptive technologies. Contraline’s work to develop a hydrogel for vas-occlusion draws from my areas of interest and expertise: medical device development, urology, and polymer science. The opportunity to drive the ADAMTM product from preclinical studies through commercialization will be a career highlight for me,” said Yelena Tropsha. Dr. Tropsha holds a master’s degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Polymer Science from Moscow State University in Russia.