Image-Guided Focused Ultrasound

UVa was recognized as the first worldwide Center of Excellence by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation in 2009. UVa is home to an Insightec MR Image-Guided Focused Ultrasound Brain System, which is being used in groundbreaking clinical trials for essential tremor, tremor-dominant Parkinson’s disease, neuropathic pain, and epilepsy. In addition, our Theraclion Echopulse ultrasound image-guided clinical system is on the verge of being approved for first-of-their-kind clinical trials combining focused ultrasound with adjunct immunotherapeutic drug delivery for breast cancer and melanoma. We also boast several MRI (3T and 7T) and ultrasound image-guided focused ultrasound systems for small animal research. Over the past 5 years, UVa’s Biomedical Engineering Department has received >$7M in NIH funding for focused ultrasound research, primarily in the field of targeted drug and gene delivery, and is a hub for MRI technology developments that serve to improve the quality and precision of focused ultrasound therapies.

BME Faculty Investigators: Rich Price, Craig Meyer.

Joint faculty: Wilson Miller.

Key collaborators in Neurology and Radiology are Drs. Elias and Matsumoto.