Key Points
- Four recent conferences featured focused ultrasound presentations.
- Use the links below to access meeting programs and abstract information.
Acoustical Society of America/Acoustical Society of Japan Sixth Joint Meeting
The Sixth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and the Acoustical Society of Japan was held December 1–5, 2025, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Oral presentations and posters filled more than 70 sessions covering all areas of acoustics research. The exhibition hall featured equipment vendors, and attendees also enjoyed several special events for networking and socializing. Best paper awards were given for students and young presenters.
A session dedicated to data-driven focused ultrasound was co-chaired by Shin Yoshizawa, PhD, (Tohoku University) and Hohyun “Henry” Lee, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Arvanitis Laboratory on behalf Costas Arvanitis, PhD, (Georgia Institute of Technology) and included seven invited and contributed papers. During the session Dr. Lee presented his work on machine learning–augmented, closed-loop controlled focused ultrasound.
“My presentation was well received,” said Dr. Lee. “There were several excellent questions about applications for the controller, clinical translation data needs, microbubble kinetic measurement, and other machine learning models. Beyond presenting my work, the session also highlighted how quickly data-driven control, cavitation monitoring, and machine learning are converging toward clinically actionable focused ultrasound systems, with engaging discussions.”
Of the more than 1,700 abstracts presented at the conference, the following presentations may be of interest to the focused ultrasound community:
Session 1pBAc Biomedical Acoustics: Data Driven Focused Ultrasound
- 1pBAc1. Breast cancer FUS ablation monitoring and predicting BBB opening using multi-parameter classifiers by Elisa Konofagou, Shiqi Hu, and Fotios Tsitsos from Columbia University in New York, NY, USA
- 1pBAc2. AI-assisted robotic ultrasound and medical digitalization function group that reproduces the eyes and hands of medical professionals by Norihiro Koizumi from the University of Electro-Communications (UEC) in Tokyo, Japan
- 1pBAc3. Deep beamformers for real-time high-quality passive acoustic mapping by Xiran Cai, Yi Zeng, and Yihang Lian from Shanghai Tech University in Shanghai, China
- 1pBAc4. Numerical study on the control of cavitation bubble distribution in a focused ultrasound field by Kohei Okita from Nihon University in Chiba, Japan
- 1pBAc5. Data-driven acoustic control of an encapsulated microbubble using a Koopman linear quadratic regulator by Andrew J. Gibson, Xin C. Yee, and Michael L. Calvisi from the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, CO, USA
- 1pBAc6. Machine learning classification of acoustic cavitation using multi-model simulations and new stability metric by Reza Haqshenas, Trinidad Gatica, and Elwin van ’t Wout from University College London in the United Kingdom and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile
- 1pBAc7. Machine learning–augmented, closed-loop controlled focused ultrasound by Hohyun Lee, Victor Menezes, and Costas Arvanitis from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, USA
1pEA Engineering Acoustics, Architectural Acoustics and Signal Processing in Acoustics: Sensing and the Internet of Things
- 1pEA6. Artificial intelligence to unlock the potential of acoustic holography: Case study on transcranial focused ultrasound by Ceren Cengiz, Zekeriya Ender Eger, Mihir Pewekar, Pinar Acar, Wynn Legon, and Shima Shahab from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, USA
1aIDb Interdisciplinary: Introduction to ASA Technical Committees
- 1aIDb4. Biomedical acoustics: Waves within tissue issues and sonic solutions by Julianna C. Simon from Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA, USA
2aBAb Biomedical Acoustics: In-Vivo Applications of Quantitative Ultrasound I
- 2aBAb10. Characterization of tumor angiogenesis using quantitative ultrasound and microbubble-enhanced scattering by Parniyan Norouzzadeh, François Legrand, Jadyn Cook, Paul A. Dayton, and Marie Muller from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, USA, and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, USA
2aPAb Physical Acoustics: Acoustics in Multiphysics Measurements: Modeling and Applications
- 2aPAb5. Multiphysics simulation of acoustic streaming for microfluidics applications by Takumi Yoshida, Tsukasa Kawamura, Mads Jensen, and Jinlan Huang from COMSOL in Toyko, Japan, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, and Burlington, MA, USA
2pBAa Biomedical Acoustics and Physical Acoustics: Issues with Tissues: In-situ Tissue Property Measurements for Therapeutic Ultrasound Procedures
- 2pBAa1. Receiving acoustic emissions from cavitation bubbles to correct phase aberration and reduce rib heating during transabdominal histotripsy by Ellen Yeats, Ning Lu, Mahmoud Komaiha, Jonathan R. Sukovich, Zhen Xu, and Timothy L. Hall from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, USA, and Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, USA
- 2pBAa2. Patient-specific approach for real-time aberration correction in therapeutic ultrasound by Vera A. Khokhlova, Gilles P. Thomas Pavel Rosnitskiy, Fedor A. Nartov, Ekaterina M. Ponomarchuk, Oleg A. Sapozhnikov, and Tatiana Khokhlova from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA, and Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, Russian Federation
- 2pBAa3. Toward patient-specific HIFU planning: In vivo attenuation mapping using plane wave ultrasound by David Melodelima, Adrien Rohfritsch, Antoine Bienassis, Elorri Olhagaray, and Caroline Huguel from LabTAU INSERM in Lyon, France
- 2pBAa4. Assessing histotripsy-induced tissue damage by monitoring the evolution of cavitation lifespans by Jonathan R. Sukovich Timothy L. Hall, Scott Haskell, Mahmoud Komaiha, Joseph Lynch, and Zhen Xu from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- 2pBAa5. Quantitative cavitation monitoring for automated ultrasound-controlled hydrogel formation in spinal disc repair by Veerle A. Brans, Anna P. Constantinou, Matthew J. Kibble, Nicolas Newell, Luca Bau, Molly M. Stevens, Constantin Coussios, and Michael Gray from the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom, and Imperial College London in London, United Kingdom
- 2pBAa6. Shear wave elastography and quantitative histology for advancing boiling histotripsy dose in ex vivo and in vivo kidneys by Ekaterina M. Ponomarchuk, Gilles P. Thomas, Minho Song, Yak-Nam Wang, Stephanie Totten, George R. Schade, Jeff Thiel, Matthew Bruce, Vera A. Khokhlova, and Tatiana Khokhlova from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA, Moscow State University in Moscow, Russian Federation, and Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, USA
- 2pBAa7. Estimation of focal region of high-intensity focused ultrasound by acoustic radiation force imaging just before therapeutic sonication by Shohei Mori and Shin Yoshizawa from Tohoku University in Miyagi and Sendai, Japan
- 2pBAa8. Magnetic resonance acoustic radiation force imaging in transcranial ultrasound stimulation by Kim Butts Pauly, Morteza Mohammadjavadi, Ben Kop, Ryan Ash, and Gary Glover from Stanford University in Stanford, CA, USA, and the University of California–San Francisco in San Francisco, CA, USA
- 2pBAa10. Cavitation dynamics in commercial scaffolds and native extracellular matrix by Ferdousi Sabera Rawnaque and Julianna C. Simon from Pennsylvania State University in State College and University Park, PA, USA
- 2pBAa11. Prostate ablation treatment planning using high intensity focused ultrasound–based elasticity mapping by Gerald L. Lee, Oleg A. Sapozhnikov, Minho Song, Gilles P. Thomas, Pavel B. Rosnitskiy, George R. Schade, and Tatiana Khokhlova from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA, Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, USA, and Moscow State University in Moscow, Russian Federation
2pPAb Physical Acoustics and Signal Processing in Acoustics: Optical Technologies for Acoustics and Vibration II: Signal Processing and Theory
- 2pPAb2. Acoustic streaming in a confined medium from high intensity focused ultrasound by Ghanem Oweis and Hussein Daoud from the American University of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon
3pBAa Biomedical Acoustics and Physical Acoustics: Sound Propagation in Inhomogeneous Media II
- 3pBAa7. Breaking the skull barrier: Parametric array enables non-invasive monitoring of transcranial focused ultrasound by Pradosh Pritam Dash and Costas Arvanitis from the Georgia Insttitute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, USA
4aBAa Biomedical Acoustics and Physical Acoustics: Ultrasound Brain and Super-Resolution Imaging I
- 4aBAa7. p-PADAM: A hybrid beamforming algorithm for passive cavitation imaging and mechanistic differentiation by Nathan Caso and Tao Sun from Northeastern University in Boston, MA, USA
4aBAb Biomedical Acoustics: General Topics in Biomedical Acoustics: Bubbles I
- 4aBAb7. Controlled cavitation for potential in situ biofilm disruption produces surface modifications in orthopaedic implant materials by Lauren Mancia, Justin Howe, John Ginnetti, Jayasimha Rao, and Eli Vlaisavljevich from the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, USA, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Blacksburg, VA, USA, and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, USA
- 4aBAb8. Combating orthopaedic implant infections with therapeutic ultrasound and shockwaves by Veerle A. Brans, Sara Keller, Ramon Garcia Maset, Michael Gray, Dario Carugo, Constantin Coussios, Robin O. Cleveland, and Eleanor P. Stride from the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom
- 4aBAb11. Quantifying cavitation behavior of activated nanodroplets during antibiotic treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus biofilms in murine wounds by Kelly VanTreeck, Jamie Liu, Kaymille Sherman, Zajeba Tabashsum, Michelle Angeles-Solano, Zachary J. Lifschin, Paul A. Dayton, Sarah Rowe, and Virginie Papadopoulou from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC
4aCA Computational Acoustics and Structural Acoustics and Vibration: Transient and Continuous Wave Methods in Computational Acoustics
- 4aCA5. Modeling and analysis of nonlinear acoustic Mach stem generation by Shane W. Lani, Jennifer Cooper, and Christopher M. Bender from Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, MD, USA
4pBAa Biomedical Acoustics: Ultrasound Brain and Super-Resolution Imaging II
- 4pBAa1. 4-D functional ultrasound imaging of neurovascular modulation evoked by focused ultrasound in mice with row-column array by Seongyeon Kim, Sergio Jimenez-Gambın, Saachi Munot, and Elisa Konofagou from Columbia University in New York, NY, USA
4pBAb Biomedical Acoustics: General Topics in Biomedical Acoustics: Bubbles II
- 4pBAb1. Optical measurement of transient change in high-intensity focused ultrasound fields by interference with multiply reflected waves by Yuma Ono, Shohei Mori, and Shin Yosh from Tohoku University in Miyagi, Japan
- 4pBAb2. The number of irradiations multiplied irradiation energy showed optimal exposure conditions of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound for activating endothelial nitric oxide synthase by Hiroshi Kanai, Shohei Mori, Tomohiko Shindo, Hiroaki Shimokawa, Satoshi Yasuda, Tetsuya Kodama, and Mototaka Arakawa from Tohoku University in Sendai and Miyagi, Japan and the International University of Health and Welfare in Tokyo, Japan
- 4pBAb4. Nanodroplets encapsulating low boiling point perfluorocarbon mixtures enable sub-focal, ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier opening by Jacob A. Mattern, Kelly VanTreeck, Anthony Novell, Phillip Durham, Charles F. Caskey, and Paul A. Dayton from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, USA, CNRS Inserm in Orsay, France, and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, USA
- 4pBAb5. Kinetic changes in intracellular adhesion molecule expression and T cell recruitment following focused ultrasound treatment with microbubbles by Kelly VanTreeck, Ourania Tsahouridis, Gianpietro Dotti, Yasmeen Rauf, Paul A. Dayton, and Phillip Durham from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- 4pBAb6. Investigation of waveform modulation and amplitude for the treatment of tendinopathies by Grace M. Wood and Julianna C. Simon from Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA, USA
- 4pBAb10. BBB disruption using focused ultrasound for gene delivery in Angelman Syndrome by Phillip Durham, Matthew Judson, Kelly VanTreeck, Jacob A. Mattern, Benjamin Philpot, and Paul A. Dayton from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- 4pBAb11. Ultrasound-triggered microbubble modulation of endothelial immunogenicity enhances expression of immune markers by Wei Chen Lo, Arutselvan Natarajan, Farbod Tarbosh, Ramasamy Paulmurugan, and Ahmed El Kaffas from The Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection in Palo Alto, CA, and the University of California San Diego in La Jolla and San Diego, CA, USA
5aBAa Biomedical Acoustics: General Topics in Biomedical Ultrasound: Quantitative Ultrasound
- 5aBAa4. Effect of poly-L-lactic acid film and ultrasound irradiation on bone healing by Yuta Murakami, Shouta Kitajima, Taiga Wada, Takamitsu Maeda, Shoma Ozawa, Masaaki Onishi, Miwa Nakajima, Motohiro Inoue, and Mami Matsukawa from Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, Hyogo Medical University in Kyoto, Japan, Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medical Doktor Research Institute in Kyoto, Japan, and Takarazuka University of Medical and Health Care in Hyogo, Japan
Search the Meeting Planner for your own key words of topics of interest.
ACA convenes twice each year. Its 190th meeting is scheduled for May 11–15, 2026, in Philadelphia, followed by the 191st meeting in December in Baltimore.
The Foundation thanks Dr. Lee for his assistance with this meeting report.
American Epilepsy Society (AES) 2025
AES 2025 was held December 5–9 in Atlanta, Georgia. This meeting is attended by researchers, clinicians, and industry representatives. The AES community is interested in understanding, diagnosing, preventing, treating, curing, and improving outcomes for epilepsy. Foundation partners Brainlab and CURE Epilepsy participated among the long list of exhibitors.
“We received very positive feedback from researchers, clinicians, and industry representatives, who were excited by our results showing that low-intensity focused ultrasound targeting the centromedian thalamus reduces epileptiform activity in Lennox–Gastaut Syndrome (LGS) mice,” said Florian Donneger, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Ivan Soltesz at Stanford University who attended AES and presented his team’s preclinical research. “There was also considerable anticipation regarding our future results in this area, as both the audience and our team view focused ultrasound as a promising potential therapeutic approach for patients with LGS.”
A total of five posters included the use of focused ultrasound technology, including three that presented pediatric clinical trial results. Each poster is listed below, and the full content can be found by searching the AES Digital Planning Tool.
Poster Session
1.531: Non-Invasive Focused Ultrasound Suppresses Epileptiform Activity in a Mouse Model of Lennox–Gastaut Syndrome by Florian Donneger, Ryan Jamiolkowski, Charlotte Porter, Peter Klein, Keith Murphy, Jordan Farrell, and Ivan Soltesz from Stanford University
2.370: Efficacy of Ultrasound Ablation for the Treatment of Focal Cortical Dysplasia: A Preclinical Murine Pilot Study by Mi Jiang, Tarana Parvez Kaovasia, Sarah Duclos, Tao Yang, Zhen Xu, and Yu Wang from the University of Michigan
2.390: MR Guided Focused Ultrasound Ablation in Epilepsy due to Hypothalamic Hamartoma – An Initial Experience by Matt Lallas, Marytery Fajardo, Trevor Resnick, Michael Duchowny, Prasanna Jayakar, Nolan Altman, Magno Guillen, and John Ragheb from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital
2.389: Safety and Feasibility of MR Guided Focused Ultrasound Ablation in Children and Young Adults with Benign, Central Brain Lesions by Marytery Fajardo, Matt Lallas, Puck Reeders, Trevor Resnick, Michael Duchowny, Prasanna Jayakar, Robert Keating, Nolan Altman, Magno Guillen, and John Ragheb from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital
3.411: High-intensity Focused Ultrasound is Biomechanically Compatible with a Pediatric Population by Kiefer Forseth, Margaret Seaton, Vijay Ravindra, David Hersh, and Christopher Conner from the University of Connecticut and the University of California San Diego
Search the AES Digital Planner for your own key words or applications.
AES 2026 will be held December 4–8 in Denver, Colorado.
The Foundation thanks Dr. Donnegar for his assistance with this meeting report.
British Medical Ultrasound Society (BMUS) Annual Scientific Meeting
The BMUS annual scientific meeting was held in Harrogate, Yorkshire, UK, from December 9–11, 2025. While this is primarily a meeting for those using diagnostic ultrasound in the clinic (doctors and sonographers), therapeutic applications are mostly covered in the Medical Physics sessions, as well as in a satellite session hosted by the Therapy Ultrasound Network for Drug Delivery and Ablation research (ThUNDDAR).
ThUNDDAR started life as a UK-wide network funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Although funding was only provided for 4 years (2016–2020), the ThUNDDAR network lives on, most noticeably by organising an annual half day session at the BMUS annual scientific meeting. This year’s event was the eighth such session and lived up to the standard of previous meetings.
About 40 people crowded into a small room to hear eight talks on therapeutic ultrasound research. Helen Mulvana from the University of Glasgow gave a thought-provoking invited talk about mechanosensitive osteoblast responses and their optimisation for improving and understanding bone healing. This talk emphasized the importance of characterisation of the ultrasound fields involved before mechanisms of action can be properly understood. The second invited talk, given by Emma Harris from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), described the successful enhancement of radiotracer delivery to glioblastoma by focused ultrasound disruption of the blood brain barrier in a pre-clinical study.*
Other talks covered immune response transcriptomic profiling of histotripsy treatments of pancreatic cancer (Petros Mouratidis, ICR), nanodrug delivery to pancreatic cancers (Benson Chen, University College London [UCL]), nonlinear ultrasound imaging of immune cells using nano-droplets (Max Au-Yeung, UCL), the development of a clinically relevant stenosis flow phantom (Yi Zheng, University of Edinburgh), and the description of a simulation framework for optimizing Fabry Perot fibre optic hydrophones (Wanqi Zheng, UCL). The final talk was entitled ‘A practical path for translating therapeutic microbubbles: manufacture, detection and pre-clinical evaluation’ by James McLaughlan from the University of Leeds. This was an excellent exposition of some of the steps needed when developing new therapeutic agents for eventual use in the clinic.
The Medical Physics sessions, run as a part of the main BMUS program, contained three therapy ultrasound talks. Gail ter Haar (ICR) gave a summary the completed phase I clinical trial of the use of focused ultrasound ablation for the treatment of twin-twin transfusion syndrome.* This invited lecture and the following (invited) introduction to, and review of, histotripsy by Ian Rivens (ICR) were aimed at introducing the wider medical ultrasound community to these exciting aspects of the remarkable capability of therapy ultrasound to address areas of unmet clinical need. A proffered paper from Zhihang Huang from the University of York described her work using bubbles to enhance drug delivery.
While therapy ultrasound still occupies only a small portion of the BMUS annual meeting, it is important that this presence is maintained in order that the British ultrasound community continues to have the opportunity to understand, and benefit from, the excellent research that is carried out in this area, not only in the UK, but around the world.
The Foundation thanks Dr. ter Haar for submitting this meeting report.
*This study was partially funded by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation
International Symposium on Biomolecular Ultrasound and Sonogenetics (ISBUS) 2025
For ISBUS 2025, its second symposium with the first being held in 2022, approximately 200 researchers pursuing biomolecular and genetic approaches to ultrasonic imaging and control of cellular function met at Caltech in Pasadena, California, from December 10–12. These scientific sessions were followed by demonstration days on December 13 and 14 at Caltech and the University of Southern California, respectively.
Invited and keynote speakers included:
- Isabelle Aubert, PhD (University of Toronto)
- Andreas Herrmann, PhD (DWI Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials and RWTH Aachen University)
- Gabe Kwong, PhD (Georgia Tech)
- Claire Nastaskin, PhD (Forest Neurotech)
- Jerzy Szablowski, PhD (Rice University)
- Evan Wang, PhD (University of Texas at Austin)
- Fei Yan, PhD (Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology)
Along with the Foundation, several focused ultrasound industry participants sponsored this meeting, including Verasonics, FUS Instruments, E&I, and Image Guided Therapy.