Blood Clot Breakthrough Uses Drug-device Combo

A new, highly effective drug-device combination for treating life-threatening blood clots in stroke patients is being developed by a team of researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute and the University of Massachusetts’ New England Center for Stroke Research.

The study, which will appear in the December issue of the journal Stroke, describes a novel method to quickly dissolve clots that completely obstruct blood vessels in the brain.

The team’s research, which is co-led by Wyss Institute founding director Donald Ingber and University of Massachusetts Medical Professor of Radiology Ajay Wakhloo, combines an injectable clot-busting nanotherapeutic that targets blockages with an intra-arterial device that restores blood flow to obstructed vessels.