Emboa Medical, a medical device startup, has developed and validated a new catheter to improve stroke treatment outcomes.
This microstructured catheter is designed to enhance the removal of blood clots that cause strokes while minimising the risk of vessel damage.
Emboa Medical has licensed Purdue University’s Thrombus Retrieval Aspiration Platform (TRAP) design for the catheter.
The patent-pending TRAP design mimics the natural efficiency of a boa constrictor’s teeth, grasping blood clots without causing damage.
Emboa Medical was founded by clinical experts from Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine, New York University (NYU) Langone Health, and medical researchers from Purdue University’s College of Engineering.
TRAP was designed by Ángel Enríquez and Hyowon Lee, a professor at Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Center for Implantable Devices.
They disclosed TRAP to Purdue Innovates, which filed a patent application to protect the technology. The Office of Technology Commercialization subsequently issued a license to Emboa Medical for its commercialisation.
According to Emboa Medical’s CEO, Ángel Enríquez, the TRAP design delivers over 200% more blockage removal force than traditional catheters.
Enríquez said: “Additionally, the TRAP catheter showed significant benefits in removing clots on the first attempt in a worst-case neurovascular model.
“It achieved a 40% success rate compared to 10% for conventional smooth inner diameter catheters.”
The medical device startup is focusing on finalising the microstructure design using physiologically relevant testing models to distinguish it from current catheters on the market.
Emboa Medical is also developing a manufacturing process to integrate microscale structures into the catheter’s distal tip.
Lee secured funding from Purdue Innovates Incubator’s Trask Innovation Fund and the CTSI Medtech Incubator to advance TRAP’s development.
Since its launch, the startup has secured over $150,000 in non-dilutive funding by winning pitch competitions.
Enríquez said: “Additionally, we are a Seedling award recipient for the National Institutes of Health’s Blueprint Medtech programme.
“We have received mentorship from medtech industry experts, a consultation with regulatory experts to establish a regulatory pathway and recently conducted an extensive market research study to validate the focus of our TRAP technology.”
In December 2024, a Purdue University researcher and collaborators at Indiana University School of Medicine secured federal funding to develop a separate patent-pending, non-invasive device for continuous monitoring of autonomic dysreflexia (AD).
