Ryan Sochol
University of Maryland, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Cerebral aneurysms are weak, bulging spots in brain blood vessels. They affect an estimated 3–7% of people and cause about 500,000 deaths a year.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Engineering
- Topics
cerebral aneurysm
brain aneurysm
microcatheter
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Create machine learning-based design tools that predict how soft robotic microcatheter tips will bend and perform, to guide the design of steerable catheters.
- Test how reliably 3D nanoprinting can build multi-actuator soft tips and built-in microfluidic circuits, separately and as complete catheters that bend in several directions on demand.
- Build a handheld controller and compare the steering of soft robotic microcatheters with standard clinical catheters in lab models of brain vessels made from patients' 3D angiography images.
- Assess the feasibility and safety of the soft robotic microcatheter during minimally invasive vessel procedures in a canine model, compared with standard microcatheters.
More about the research
Doctors often treat them from inside the vessels by threading a thin tube called a microcatheter up to the brain to place coils or stents. But twisting vessels and oddly shaped aneurysms make standard microcatheters hard to steer. This lengthens procedures, causes failed attempts and raises the risk of complications.
Why it matters
More maneuverable microcatheters could make it safer and faster to treat unruptured brain aneurysms through the blood vessels, with fewer failed attempts and complications. The same design could also help with other risky procedures in small, twisting or delicate vessels, such as treating congenital heart defects in children.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sourabh Saha
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Engineering·Early-career
Develop physics-based relationships that predict printability and final print geometry in projection two-photon lithography, validated against experimental measurements.
Michael Levitt
University of Washington, WA·Biomedical Engineering
Run computational fluid dynamics simulations before and after treatment on a cohort of human cerebral aneurysms with known outcomes, and test which wall-based (Eulerian) and platelet-tracking (Lagrangian) measures predict success or failure.
Alexander Vezeridis
Stanford University, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Miniaturize catheter-based electrochemical impedance spectroscopy sensing technology onto microcatheters, the small-caliber catheters used for embolization that can track through small blood vessels.
The school
University of Maryland: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 602 research doctorates a year.
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