Fighting Hypertension

So I'm excited to talk to you about this new technology you've developed here.

So let's start with defining what it is.

What is the Caroflex device?

So Caroflex is a soft, stretchable, and a 3D-printed biotronic device that is designed to stimulate the carotid sinus, which is a small region near the branching point of the carotid artery in the neck.

So the carotid sinus contains pressure sensors that is called baroreceptors.

These sensors help the body monitor the blood pressure, and when the blood pressure increases, they send signals to the brain, and the brain responds by adjusting heart rate, blood vessel tone, and other physiological processes to help lower the blood pressure.

So in a way, uh, I would say the carotid sinus is part of the body's natural blood pressure control system.

So Caroflex is, uh, designed to gently activate that system by using electrical stimulations to try to treat, um, especially a, a group of patients called drug-resistant hypertension patients that do not respond enough to existing medicines on the market.

With this approach, we no longer need it to be sutured.

That's a major part of it.

So current device, it needs sutures to hold them in place to different organs.

Uh, they-- For sure you can imagine this c- can cause damages to tissue, and Caroflex use a different method with a adhesion layer.

For one thing, it's no longer, you know, use a suture that avoids the damage.

And another thing, it also makes the surgery much easier.

So instead of, you know, you have to have a surgeon that with very good suture skills, you can just have something directly up here, that's it.

Basically stick and use.

Much make it mainly much easy.

And also, uh, we specifically choose, um, very soft materials to fabricate the device, uh, so that it can match the mechanics of the body tissue itself so that it does, does not introduce mechanical mismatches or the... that can cause other problems.

I think that's a major thing.

Yeah.