Mario Ries, Ph.D., a physicist at the Laboratory for Functional and Molecular Imaging in Bordeaux, France, has been intrigued with the notion of combining noninvasive ablation with MR guidance since 1997. Today, his key ambition is help the roughly one to one and a half million people globally diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
Ries has received a $100,000 research award from the Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation to pursue a project he believes will result in a safer and more effective treatment for breast cancer. His objective is to solve the technical drawbacks that cause existing high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) transducers – devices that convert energy into sound waves and focus the waves on a target – to damage tissue around the breast, including to the thoracic cage, heart and lungs. Click here to read full report.