Key Points
- Verasonics has been a leader in research ultrasound since 2001.
- Their systems have been used for thermal and mechanical ablation, blood-brain barrier opening, neuromodulation, drug delivery, immunotherapy, and more.
Formed in 2001 with a vision to disrupt the field of ultrasound, Seattle area–based Verasonics aims to provide researchers and developers with the most advanced and flexible solutions to enable groundbreaking development of new algorithms and products in a wide range of applications. The company developed a proprietary, novel, software-based beamforming architecture and a high-end, programmable ultrasound transmission and acquisition system. This system is capable of leveraging ongoing increases in computing power and allowing unmatched flexibility for ultrasound research.
In 2007, Verasonics’ initial efforts culminated with the commercialization of its inaugural system, the V-1, followed by the Vantage® Research Ultrasound System in 2013, and the Vantage NXT Research Ultrasound System in 2023.
Verasonics’ systems have changed the landscape for academic and commercial investigators, because they are the ideal solution for ultrasound-driven research and development in biomedical, focused ultrasound, materials science, earth sciences, and the physics of acoustics. To date, Verasonics’ research ultrasound systems have been cited in more than 4,600 scientific journals.
From supplying researchers with powerful, flexible systems to licensing intellectual property to large and small companies, Verasonics continues to contribute to the focused ultrasound community.
Where did the company’s name come from?
With origins from Latin, “Vera” refers to “real” or “true,” and “sonics” refers to acoustics or the study of sound. Thus, Verasonics is meant to signify the true scientific and practical application of sound.
Tell us about the company structure, ownership and locations.
Verasonics was founded in 2001 by Ron Daigle and Lauren Pflugrath, and the company remains privately held. Ron is fully engaged as Chairman and Chief Innovation Officer and Jon K. Daigle is president and CEO. Headquartered in Kirkland, Washington (near Seattle), Verasonics has offices in the Netherlands, Great Britain, South Korea, and Colombia, with a robust distribution network across Asia and Eastern Europe.
What products and services do you offer the focused ultrasound community?
Verasonics systems combine key developments, such as real-time access to raw ultrasound data, high frame-rate plane wave imaging, and the capability to generate long pulses for radiation force and focused ultrasound. Shear-wave elastography for evaluating tissue stiffness has now become a mainstay tool on most clinical ultrasound systems, and it was the release of the Verasonics V-1 system that triggered a dramatic increase in shear-wave elastography research.
Similarly, and due in part to the growing community interest in therapeutic ultrasound research as well as a need for versatile tools for the community, Verasonics developed a new high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) configuration on the V-1 system in 2010. The ability to program custom focused ultrasound transmit sequences with close to continuous wave output but also allowing for the integration in the very same sequence of B-mode ultrasound reconstruction for image guidance and custom imaging/processing for treatment monitoring was truly ground-breaking. Coupling the focused ultrasound capability with powerful proprietary software and tools alongside a selection of third-party transducers has allowed Verasonics’ systems to be the mainstay hardware platform used for focused ultrasound research in areas ranging from thermal and mechanical ablation, blood-brain barrier opening, neuromodulation, drug delivery, immunotherapy, and many others.
How does Verasonics protect its intellectual property?
The company has been granted patents on ten unique technologies with issuances worldwide protecting its software-based beamforming architecture, unique transceiver design, as well as various applications leveraging the advantages of its unique architecture.
What would you like others to know about the company?
Verasonics continually adapts and advances its ultrasound technology and has built an extensive product portfolio to cover a wide range of research application areas. A key goal is to support innovation in ultrasound with an open programmable, flexible product combining a high-performance transmission/acquisition system with software running on desktop computers.
Verasonics platforms allow for complete single-developer innovation from concept to validation. Vantage NXT Research Ultrasound Systems support all current imaging modes, while enabling researchers to explore and develop novel acquisition methods and image formation. Platform features can be extended through software and hardware options and accessories, including a comprehensive selection of third-party transducers from leading manufacturers.
The company has become distinguished in academic, commercial and start-up ultrasound environments; they have a diverse customer base spanning the world’s leading academic institutions, research institutes, and government entities.
In addition, Verasonics partners with private and public companies to bring new ultrasound-based solutions to market using the company’s industry-leading technology. Through their commercial technology licensing and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) supply models, commercial licensees can achieve substantial savings in development costs and accelerate time to market by reducing the need for specialized developers and minimizing the need for custom hardware requirements.
What challenges are you tackling?
We are improving our hardware and software platform to enable greater flexibility, performance, and ease of use. In the field of focused ultrasound, we continually work with transducer manufacturers to more tightly integrate our platform with commercially available, high-specification, multi-element focused ultrasound transducers and are constantly working on new and improved tools. We believe these efforts will enhance ultrasound-guided focused ultrasound capability during the research stage by allowing researchers to more easily guide, monitor, and deliver therapy through the same device.
What are the benefits of your solutions over other companies?
Vantage Systems offer developers true flexibility to develop novel imaging modes, to program long or short duration focused ultrasound transmit pulse sequences, and at the same time to integrate any real-time monitoring method or algorithm with access to large buffers of RF data. The combination of flexibility, programmability, performance, as well as breadth of supported applications truly allows Verasonics to lead the research ultrasound market.
In addition, Verasonics offers its customer base comprehensive technical support. The company has a customer portal offering 24/7 access to training videos, application notes and scripts, seminars hosted by members of its ultrasound science team, and more.
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