Directional electroporation catheter for targeted vascular
This technology is a balloon catheter that uses precisely controlled electrical pulses to destroy diseased tissue inside blood vessels — for example, the buildup that causes artery narrowing — without generating damaging heat. The catheter carries multiple independently controllable electrodes arranged around its surface, so a physician can activate only the electrodes that face the diseased tissue while leaving the healthy side of the vessel wall untreated. This selective firing pattern is the key innovation: existing electroporation catheters treat the full circumference of a vessel, which wastes energy and risks harming healthy tissue when a blockage only covers part of the vessel wall. The device is already granted, and the method claim is broad enough to cover a wide range of electrode selection sequences and pulse parameters.
What you could build
A next-generation peripheral or coronary atherectomy/debulking catheter sold to interventional cardiologists and vascular surgeons, competing with or complementing existing drug-coated balloon and atherectomy systems by offering non-thermal, spatially targeted tissue ablation.
Who in Virginia should care
Interventional cardiology device companies, contract medical device manufacturers, and hospital systems with large vascular surgery programs — such as Inova, VCU Health, or UVA Health — would be plausible partners or licensees.
Readiness: Prototype likely
Concept — described but not yet demonstrated. Lab validated — supported by experimental results in the patent. Prototype likely — the text describes a built, working embodiment.
Readiness is inferred from the patent text, not from a lab visit.
The record
- Inventors
- Robert E. Neal, Paulo A. Garcia, Rafael V. Davalos, Peter Callas
- Granted
- February 25, 2025
- Status
- Granted patent
- Patent number
- 12232792
Ready to talk?
Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties handles licensing for this technology.
Prosim summaries are generated from public patent text and are not legal advice.