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Emboa Medical’s scientific approach is in its name: emulate a boa constrictor, specifically its sharp, recurved teeth.
The pre-clinical West Lafayette-based medical device startup founded on research from Purdue University is working to develop a new “microstructred” catheter to remove blood clots that cause strokes. Emboa’s patent-pending technology—called TRAP, short for thrombus retrieval aspiration platform—mimics the snake’s teeth arrangement, using microstructures on the inner diameter to help grab onto harmful blood clots without tearing them.
Emboa’s TRAP catheter device is for use with ischemic stroke, where a blood clot stops blood flow into the brain’s arteries. A surgeon would use the device through a catheter, inserted in the radial artery of the forearm or femoral artery in the thigh area, to suction out the clot from a patient’s blood vessel.
The goal: consume the entire clot like a boa swallowing a rat whole.
“You’d be surprised how many times nature-inspired designs come into solutions for engineers,” said Emboa CEO Ángel Enríquez, who earned his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Purdue in 2023.
He said the research did not start out simply trying to copy the boa constrictor’s teeth; instead, the connection came as the project advanced. “It just made sense and was simple and elegant solution towards the problem that we were encountering,” Enríquez said.
Emboa said validation testing was conducted using neurovascular models of patients, simulations and bench tests.
According to the company, the TRAP design showed a more than 200% increase in blockage removal force compared with a traditional catheter. The company said the device had a 40% success rate in removing clots on first attempts in worst-case situations on a neurovascular model, compared with a 10% rate for conventional, smooth inner diameter catheters.
The company’s structure also underscores the complexity and time needed to create medical startups.
TRAP was designed by Enríquez—for now Emboa’s only employee—and Hyowon Lee, professor in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Center for Implantable Devices. The two the presented TRAP to the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization, which submitted a patent application.
In addition to researchers at Purdue, Emboa’s founders included clinicians at Carmel-based Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine and NYU Langone Health in New York.
Dr. Daniel Sahlein, an interventional neuroradiologist with Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine, serves as Emboa’s chief medical officer.
“As a physician in a large neuromuscular practice, I see first hand the need for tools to better extract clots from the arteries of the brain during a blockage which causes a stroke,” Sahlein said in an email. “The TRAP technology offers a fundamentally different clot extraction mechanism, and I believe will be an integral tool in the neuroendovascular arsenal for treating acute ischemic stroke.”
Emboa is working with a contract manufacturer to develop scalable prototypes for use with animal testing. From there, the company hopes to develop a final design to pursue FDA clearance.
The company has received more than $150,000 in nondilutive funding through startup pitch competitions including Purdue Innovates’ New Venture Challenge. Enríquez said the company is seeking additional funding, estimating it would take up to $5 million to bring its product to market by late 2027.
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