Hyowon (Hugh) Lee, College of Engineering, “Development of Thrombectomy Retraction Aspiration Platform (TRAP),” $50,000.

Stroke is the second-leading cause of death around the globe; it kills about 140,000 Americans annually. Almost 90% of stroke cases are caused by an obstruction of one of the arteries that supplies blood to the brain. Swiftly reestablishing blood flow is imperative to preserve neurological function. The current gold standard to remove an obstruction is a catheter with a self-expanding stent that acts like a rake. This method has a high risk of damaging thinner arterial walls.

Lee, an associate professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Center for Implantable Devices, has worked with postdoctoral researcher Ángel EnrÍquez and clinical partners at Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine and NYU Langone Health to develop a patent-pending, novel clot-retrieving platform called Thrombectomy Retraction Aspiration Platform, or TRAP.

“The TRAP catheter integrates biomimetic design into the aspiration catheter tip to enhance forces to remove the obstruction and prioritizes safety,” Lee said. “The design demonstrated a greater than 200% increase in occlusion removal force compared to a traditional catheter. We believe our simple, nature-inspired approach to this problem will disrupt the field of stroke treatment.” 

Lee, in partnership with a new startup, Emboa Medical, will use the Trask funding to establish a manufacturing process to integrate microscale structures into the distal tip of catheters. They will conduct in vitro experiments to quantitatively demonstrate the advantages of TRAP catheters in increasing the effectiveness of extracting blood clots.

“The successful completion of these aims planned in this project will lead to early prototypes that can facilitate the transition to larger-scale verification activities toward regulatory approval,” Lee said. 

Lee is one of four researchers at Purdue who received a total of $150,000 from the Trask Innovation Fund to strengthen the appeal of their patent-pending intellectual property for commercial use.

The fund is managed by the Purdue Innovates Incubator, which provides programming for the Purdue University community to ideate, refine and support their solutions. The fund awards up to $50,000 for short-term projects that enhance the commercial value of Purdue intellectual property.

Read more about this year’s Trask Innovation Fund recipients.

Story written by Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org for Purdue Research Foundation News.