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Obstructive Sleep Apnea · A Correction, Mid‑Breath

Sleep Apnea
Treatment

shallow · obstructed
corrected · mid‑breath
ASRMax device — concept composition
Most devices treat the event. Arroyo's device, in development, treats apneas moments before they begin — by sensing tongue position and correcting airway obstruction before oxygen ever drops.
The Pattern

It repeats. All night. Untreated.

Obstructive sleep apnea isn't a single event — it's a cycle that can happen dozens of times an hour, every night, for years. CPAP treats the whole night the same way, whether an event is happening or not. Nothing watches for the moment it starts.

Fewer than half of patients stay on CPAP long enough for it to matter.

Hour 1Hour 2Hour 3Hour 4Hour 5
ASRMax sensor and electrode detail
The Mechanism

Watch for it. Catch it. Before oxygen drops.

  • Sense

    A sensor in the device continually tracks tongue position through the night — always sampling.

  • Stimulate

    The instant the tongue begins to move away from its normal position against the teeth and block the airway, a gentle electrical stimulation creates a perception in the mouth that makes the user move the tongue forward to stop it.

  • Prevent

    The obstruction never fully happens. No mask, no surgery, no drop in blood oxygen to recover from.

  • Validate

    When awake, the sensation feels like a fizzy drink in the mouth — noticeable — but when asleep, it doesn't change sleep state or cause arousals. In clinical research studies, patients who slept overnight with the device saw dramatically reduced AHI scores. One study subject put it simply afterward: “I don't know how much you plan to sell this for, but I doubt it would be more than I'm willing to pay.”

Our Story

From HMRI to Arroyo Sleep

The technology originated in the neuro-engineering program at the Huntington Medical Research Institutes. Dr. Bearman became a volunteer at HMRI in 2014 and worked with Dr. Csete (then HMRI President) to start development of the OSA treatment, funded with a gift from a Caltech professor who was a member of the board. We recruited Dr. Patel to the project early on to be our medical advisor.

A few years ago, under the leadership of Dr. Julia Bradsher, HMRI made a further investment in the project that allowed us to start clinical studies and engineering, which is when Ned Perkins joined us. At about the same time, Evan Tsang came onboard for his business and manufacturing experience.

OSA is not just being tired. It leads to higher risk of cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, as well as attention and cognition deficits.

Since 2023, the program has been funded through HMRI by the Hastings Foundation of Pasadena to conduct clinical research studies and improve device engineering — continuing the work of bringing patients an option they'll actually use.

Team

A Commercially Oriented Executive Team

We are engineers and clinicians with serial entrepreneurship wired into our beings. With experience in public companies and multiple exits, we've also built a world class scientific advisory board and understand that we need to continue to build out our team to address evolving business needs.

Gregory Bearman, PhD

Gregory Bearman, PhD

CEO

A physicist who spent decades at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory leading instrument development and managing large-scale technology programs, Dr. Bearman has a proven track record of taking technology from lab bench to real-world deployment.

Bearman first engaged with the sleep apnea device nine years ago as a volunteer at Huntington Medical Research Institutes, where the technology was developed. He redesigned the electronics from a hand-soldered prototype into a robust modern PC board design, recruited Patel and Perkins to the project. Recognizing the technology's potential to help an enormous number of people, he founded Arroyo Sleep Research with the rest of the team and negotiated the technology license from HMRI.

Before retiring from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2008 as a Principal Scientist, Bearman led a research group developing optical and imaging instruments for planetary exploration. He managed large-scale technology programs — including a $10M national security sensor program — and was deputy program manager for instruments launched to the International Space Station. He moved his research interests to biomedical and bioengineering in the early 1990s. He is one of the inventors of the Zeiss META spectral imager for confocal microscopy, which revolutionized fluorescent microscopy and was a huge commercial success. Dr. Bearman has 18 issued US patents and over 130 publications.

At JPL he supervised a 20-person research group, giving him experience in line management, compliance, and HR. Since leaving JPL, he has served as CSO or CTO for two Los Angeles-area startups, taking lab prototypes through commercialization — work directly applicable to leading Arroyo Sleep Research.

Link to papers: independent.academia.edu/GregBearman or ResearchGate
Ned Perkins

Ned Perkins

CTO

R&D engineer specializing in medtech commercialization. Hopkins and Caltech trained.

Mr. Perkins recently assumed the role of CTO at Arroyo Sleep Research after working for four years with Dr. Bearman on the sleep apnea project. His background is ideally suited to his role on the ASR team — he has extensive experience with experimental design, prototype fabrication, data analysis, and additive manufacturing techniques, in addition to strong working relationships with the Arroyo Sleep Research team. He also has experience managing technical teams and external product design and engineering contractors. He has worked locally with a variety of startups, on projects ranging from a 15-minute PCR COVID detector to rapid verification of medical sterilization success in autoclaves. His work has involved optics, microscopy, fluorescence, CAD and printing, and coding for instrument control.
Ashish Patel, MD

Ashish Patel, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Head of large pulmonologist practice at Huntington Hospital with decades of experience in sleep apnea.

Board-certified in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Dr. Patel brings over 17 years of clinical experience treating complex respiratory, sleep, and critical care conditions, including serving as Director of the Huntington Hospital Sleep Disorders Center. A significant focus of his work is Obstructive Sleep Apnea, where many patients struggle to tolerate CPAP and turn to alternatives — or abandon treatment altogether. Since 2018, he has been the lead clinical investigator on Arroyo Sleep's OSA device, first through HMRI and now as Chief Medical Officer, personally monitoring sleep studies using the device and refining its parameters in ways that have directly shaped the company's engineering and development strategy.
Evan Tsang

Evan Tsang

President

Serial founder in engineering and business development. Caltech trained with a mix of large company and startup experience.

Evan brings a broad background in product development and business development, most recently helping research and university spinoffs grow into commercial companies. As Program Director at Replenish, he took an experimental implantable ophthalmic drug pump from proof-of-concept to low-volume manufacturing. He later led commercialization at ChromoLogic, co-founded Task Force Lab (onsite pandemic testing), and drove double-digit annual growth as head of business development at Skylar.
Dan Kimbell, Esq.

Dan Kimbell, Esq.

COO

30+ year registered patent attorney and serial entrepreneur; co-founded and served as COO of a pharmaceutical company that went public and won FDA approval. Advised HMRI's board on IP for nine years before joining ASR.

Mr. Kimbell is an AV®-rated, registered patent attorney with over three decades of experience in patent and trademark prosecution, as well as IP licensing. He has prosecuted and secured more than 1,000 patents and thousands of trademarks for clients spanning numerous technical and business areas, and has rendered high-level counseling to organizations seeking to leverage their IP for strategic growth.

Mr. Kimbell also brings to ASR significant, prior firsthand entrepreneurial experience along with his legal work — he co-founded four startup companies, including a pharmaceutical company in 2000, where he served as its COO for a decade. During his tenure, multiple milestones were achieved, including running pivotal clinical trials, in-licensing of third-party pharmaceuticals, and building foundational business processes that paved the way for growth, and ultimately FDA approval, commercial launch, and public listing.
Marie Csete, MD/PhD

Marie Csete, MD/PhD

Director of Research

Physician-scientist, retired professor. Caltech (PhD) and Columbia (MD) trained, former CMO/CEO of multiple biomedical startups.

Dr. Csete has been involved with Arroyo Sleep Research since its inception — as President/CSO of Huntington Medical Research Institutes (2014-2018) she assembled the original volunteer team that developed the OSA device, brought in first Dr. Bearman and then Dr. Patel, and wrote the first IRB protocol for studying it. Her background is as an anesthesiologist and critical care physician, with 25 years leading liver transplant anesthesiology and deep airway-management expertise. In addition, she has a PhD from Caltech (STEM cells) and was CSO of California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, CMO of Avicena, running FDA-facing device trials. These experiences position her to guide ASR through clinical study design, regulatory strategy, and fundraising. She now serves as a translation consultant to the team, facilitating communication between the engineering, clinical, and regulatory sides of the project she helped start.
Scientific Advisory Board

A World-Class Scientific Advisory Board

Our Scientific Advisory Board brings together leaders in sleep medicine, neuroscience, and medtech innovation — guiding clinical strategy, device development, and commercialization to prepare our move from prototype to scale.

Bill Van Antwerp

Bill Van Antwerp

Medtech executive and commercialization leader; experience scaling companies and bringing technologies to market. He has 65 issued US patents.

Dmitri Kossakovski, PhD

Dmitri Kossakovski, PhD

R&D engineer specializing in medtech commercialization. Hopkins and Caltech trained, with 30+ patents.

G. William Arnett, DDS, FACD

G. William Arnett, DDS, FACD

International authority in craniofacial and orthognathic surgery; 70+ publications; pioneer in facial reconstruction and treatment planning, and patented inventor.

Gilles Lavigne, DMD, PhD

Gilles Lavigne, DMD, PhD

World leader in sleep medicine and oral health; Order of Canada; 300+ publications; former dean and research chair in sleep & pain.

Satinderpall Pannu, PhD

Satinderpall Pannu, PhD

Medtech innovator and executive; led development of breakthrough neurostimulation and biomedical devices; 18 patents + more in progress.

Intellectual Property

Our IP Position

Arroyo Sleep Research holds an exclusive license from Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI) to a portfolio of issued and pending patents covering methods and devices for treating sleep apnea.

U.S. Patents & Applications
Foreign Patents & Applications
Arroyo Sleep Research

The best treatment is the one you never notice.

Contact

Get in Touch

Address

Pasadena, CA

LinkedIn

linkedin.com/pub/greg-bearman

CAUTION — Investigational Device. Limited by United States law to investigational use. This device is a prototype currently undergoing early-stage clinical evaluation and has not been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any other regulatory authority for commercial sale or clinical use outside of authorized clinical investigations.