News

Elizabeth Wins International Poster Award

"Enhanced visualization of ultrasound contrast agents using normalized singular spectrum area and singular value thresholding"

Elizabeth Herbst has won a poster award at the annual European Symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging, a top level inernational meeting in the field of ultrasound contrast. Her presentation for was chosen among a group of 16 presenters in ultrasound contrast imaging. Co-authors on the work include Dr. John Hossack, Dr. F. William Mauldin, and Dr. Alexander Klibanov.

Elizabeth’s project in ultrasound molecular imaging utilizes singular value decomposition-based signal processing techniques to automatically segment and identify ultrasound contrast agent signals based on their unique spatiotemporal signatures. This innovative filtering technique has the potential to improve the visualization of cancer and other vascular diseases in future clinical settings.

Movie showing filtering Technique (.avi)

Microbubbles, Microfluidics, and Molecular Localization: Our Latest Publications

Congrats to Yanjun, Feifei and Elizabeth authors of the lab's four most recent publications:

• Yanjun Xie for "Real-time control of microbubble diameter from a flow-focusing microfluidic device" (a conference paper in IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium).
• Yanjun Xie for "Closed-loop feedback control of microbubble diameter from a flow-focusing microfluidic device" (Journal paper in Biomicrofluidics).
• Feifei Zhao for "A Targeted Molecular Localization Imaging Method Applied to Tumor Microvasculature" (a journal paper in Investigative Radiology). 
• Elizabeth Herbst for "Enhanced visualization of intratumoral microbubbles using singular value thresholding combined with normalized singular spectrum area" (Conference paper in IEEE IUS).

Improving Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: New Coulter Award

Hossack Lab has been awarded $97K from the UVA-Coulter Partnership for "Super resolution molecular imaging for improved prostate cancer diagnostic performance."  Our proposal addresses new methods of ultrasound parameter setting and signal processing to yield approximately five fold improvement in resolution for ultrasound imaging combined with imaging of molecular signature of cancer.

Elizabeth Earns Fellowship from the American Heart Association

Elizabeth Herbst has won an American Heart Association Pre-Doctoral Fellowship! Her project focuses on the use of ultrasound molecular imaging to characterize the aneurysmal abdominal aorta.

Year in Review: Adam's ABME Article Among the Journal's Top-10 Cited for 2018

Our publication on microfluidics-based sonothrombolysis was one of the top 10 cited articles published by Annals of Biomedical Engineering in 2018. Check it out!

Annals of Biomedical Engineering 2018 Year in Review

In Vitro Sonothrombolysis Enhancement by Transiently Stable Microbubbles Produced by a Flow-Focusing Microfluidic Device

Hossack Lab at IEEE in Scotland

Hossack Lab grad students Elizabeth Herbst and Yanjun Xie presented their research at the 2019 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium in Glasgow, Scotland. Yanjun's research focused on designing a feedback control system on the diameters of microbubbles produced by a flow-focusing microfluidic device. Elizabeth's research was focused on the use of normalized singular spectrum area to isolate unique signals from ultrasound contrast agents. 

Adam selected for the Athanasiou ABME Student Award Session at BMES

The second annual Athanasiou ABME Student Award Session will be held at the 2019 BMES Annual Meeting. Just six awardees have been selected from all papers first-authored by students and postdocs in 2018 in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering.  Hossack Lab's Adam Dixon (PhD '16) is one of the six.

Link to Adam's award-winning paper

Elizabeth earns the WMIS Women In Molecular Imaging Network (WIMIN) Award

The World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) has awarded Elizabeth the Women In Molecular Imaging Network (WIMIN) Award and a student travel stipend for the upcoming World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC). She was selected for both awards based on the scientific merit of her submitted abstract.

New publication in the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology

Elizabeth is first author on a new paper published in Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology!

Validation of normalized singular spectrum area as a classifier for molecularly targeted microbubble adherence.

AUTHORS: Elizabeth B Herbst, Sunil Unnikrishnan, Alexander L Klibanov, F William Mauldin Jr., John A Hossack.

Announcing Our Latest NIH R01

In 2018 Hossack Laboratory received a new four-year National Institutes of Health R01 grant to investigate catheter-based generation of special-purpose microbubbles for rapid erosion of embolic clots. Venous thromboembolism (VTE), comprising Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE), results in significant mortality, morbidity, and societal cost. There are approximately 900,000 recurrent, fatal and nonfatal VTE events resulting in 300,000 deaths annually in the US. With this four-year grant, extendable to five years, Hossack Lab will be supported by two R01s, and thus will have secure funding for the duration of incoming PhD students. Additionally, Hossack Lab receives significant support from two NIH grants to UVA colleagues, Dr. Sasha Klibanov and Dr. Mark Okusa, with projects involving ultrasound molecular imaging and ultrasound-based therapies for ischemia-reperfusion injury, respectively. The lab has also had a highly successful record with smaller grants such as the Coulter Partnership grant, funded by the Coulter endowment to the UVA BME department, investigating the capabilities of ultrasound for breast cancer therapy monitoring. Taken together, Hossack Lab is well-positioned to grow and thrive in the coming years.