February–March 2025 Meeting Roundup

Key Points

• Seven recent conferences and two webinars featured focused ultrasound presentations. 
• Use the links below to access the meeting programs and abstract information. 

European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 

ECR 2025 was held February 26 – March 2 in Vienna, Austria. Hosted by the European Society of Radiology with the theme of “Planet Radiology,” ECR drew more than 20,000 attendees. The following presentations included focused ultrasound: 

• Neuro Refresher Course 211 – New Brain Therapies Under MRI: MRI-guided high-intensity-focused ultrasound (MRI-HIFU) in brain disorders by Nadya Pyatigorskaya from Paris, France. 
• Clinical Trials in Radiology 1: Focal therapy versus standard of care in men with prostate cancer: a study protocol of a randomized trial to study (cost)effectiveness and quality of life by Lauren Te Molder from Nijmegen, The Netherlands 

Search all content and access it via ECR’s on-demand platform here. Watch the ECR 2025 Aftermovie. Next: ECR 2026 is scheduled for March 4–8 in Vienna. 

First International Conference on Focused Ultrasound (FIICU) 

The Royal Care Institute of Neuroscience hosted FIICU 2025 from March 1–2 in Coimbatore, Inda. In collaboration with Royal Care Super Specialty Hospital, the Focused Ultrasound Association of India (or FUSAI) organized FIICU 2025 to include presentations by international and national experts. Approximately 200 attendees participated in thought-provoking debates, didactic lectures, panel discussions, and two live MR-guided focused ultrasound demonstrations. The event affirmed India’s growing role in the global focused ultrasound landscape. Dr. Karuppannasamy Madeswaran, M.Ch., the director of FUSAI and chairman and managing director of Royal Care Super Specialty Hospital, inaugurated the conference. Visiting faculty included: 

• Prof. Jin Woo Chang, Center for Innovative Functional Neurosurgery, Korea University Anam Hospital, Seoul, Korea 
• Prof. Dipankar Nandi, consultant neurosurgeon, Charing Cross Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College, London 
• Dr. Roland Dominic G. Jamora, Philippine Neurological Association Fellow, associate professor of neurosciences, College of Medicine, Philippine General Hospital, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines 
• Prof. Raúl Martínez Fernández, neurologist and clinical researcher, HM CINAC Hospital, Madrid Spain 

Bioelectric Medicine (BEM) Summit 

The sixth annual BEM Summit took place March 5–6 at the Garden City Hotel in Garden City, NY. It was hosted by Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. More than 200 scientists, engineers, and clinicians from academia, industry, and research foundations with interests in translational medicine, neuromodulation, and bioengineering discussed the use of neurotechnology to treat diseases. The Summit was co-chaired by Stavros Zanos, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine, and Hubert Lim, PhD, a professor of biomedical engineering and otolaryngology at the University of Minnesota. The program included presentations, panel discussions, and networking opportunities. Covered topics included:  

• Emerging bioelectronic applications of new biomaterials 
• Applications of therapeutic ultrasound 
• Precision medicine approaches to neuromodulation 
• The role of obesity and inflammation in cardiovascular diseases 
• Neurostimulation therapies in spinal cord and pain disorders 
• 40 Hz sensory stimulation for Alzheimer’s disease 

The “Future Opportunities in Therapeutic Ultrasound” session was moderated by Chris Puleo, PhD (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). Speakers in this session included: 

1.  Jan Kubanek, PhD (University of Utah), who discussed noninvasive deep brain stimulation with ultrasonic waves.

2. Takashi Kozai, PhD (University of Pittsburgh), who presented on glial modulation, inflammation repair, and neural health enhancement with low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) for improved neural interfaces.

3. Suzanne LeBlang, MD (Focused Ultrasound Foundation), who gave an update on clinical studies using focused ultrasound to treat neuropsychiatric disorders. 

Two keynote speakers shared their expertise in the following presentations: 

• John A. Rogers, PhD (Northwestern University), presented his research on the development of flexible, biocompatible implanted neuromodulation devices. 
• Ralph Kern, MD (Cognito Therapeutics), shared his insights on the integration of neurotechnology in cognitive therapy and Alzheimer’s disease.

“This meeting addressed the use of neuromodulation for a variety of diseases, such as diabetes, inflammatory disorders (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, pulmonary hypertension), obesity, and heart failure,” said Dr. LeBlang, the Foundation’s director of clinical relationships, “There are numerous types of energy being used for neuromodulation, including magnetic, electrical, and ultrasound stimulation, and learning from the experiences of academic researchers and the companies will benefit the field of focused ultrasound.” 

Winter School on Therapeutic Ultrasound 

The 2025 Winter School was once again held in Les Houches, France, from March 9–14. It was organized by Gail ter Haar (London, UK), Vera Khokhlova (Moscow, Russia), and Jean-François Aubry (Paris, France). The five-day program, which is available here, included technical topics, neurosurgery, neuromodulation, sonodynamic therapy, drug delivery, histotripsy, oncology, gene therapy, and the state of the field. “The student presentations on neuromodulation, blood-brain barrier opening, and drug delivery were a highlight of the meeting for me,” said Joe Kilroy, PhD, associate director of the Foundation’s Research and Education Team. “A clinical presentation that created a lot of excitement was Joan Vidal-Jove’s ongoing clinical trial in Spain that is using histotripsy to treat participants with pancreatic cancer. Technical researchers are also addressing several important questions in the field – such as precision neuromodulation, reproducible results, and temperature mapping – with their work.” 

European Molecular Imaging Meeting (EMIM) 

EMIM 2025, the 20th annual meeting of the European Society for Molecular Imaging, was held March 11–14 in Bilbao, Spain. Searching the online program for focused ultrasound or HIFU produces 16 presentations, and the posters are available through the downloadable meeting app. A special session, “Gene Therapy Approaches using Focused Ultrasound” highlighted the use of focused ultrasound for gene therapy delivery. Chrit Moonen, PhD, the co-director of the Foundation’s Research & Education Team co-moderated the session, which included the following 30-minute presentations: 

• The Role of Blood Brain Barrier Opening for Stopping Neurodegenerative Diseases: Focused on Parkinson’s Disease by Jose A. Obeso 
• MRI-Guided Non-Invasive Gene Delivery to the brain using transcranial focused ultrasound by Isabelle Aubert 
• Talking to Neurons: Biomolecular Ultrasound to Image and Control Neural Activity by Mikhail G. Shapiro 

“Beyond this special session, interesting presentations at EMIM used PET MRI to determine which molecules cross the blood-brain barrier and immuno-PET for tracking labeled T-cells, as well as several presentations about monitoring treatment of glioblastoma,” said Dr. Moonen. “There was also an exceptional session by Elisa Konofagou on functional ultrasound imaging of the brain, but unfortunately it was scheduled at the same time as the focused ultrasound gene therapy session.” 

Notable Webinars 

Brainbox: Changing Connectomes: Improved Cognition Through Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation 
Marcus Kaiser, PhD, professor of neuroinformatics at the University of Nottingham, is an expert in using computer simulations and brain stimulation devices to improve cognitive performance in patients suffering from severe mental illness (schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder). He is author of Changing Connectomes. In this March 13, 2025, webinar, Dr. Kaiser discussed the temporal dynamics of ultrasound neuromodulation in humans. See also Neuromodulation Perception by the General Public, a 2025 publication in Scientific Reports that Dr. Kaiser discussed during the webinar. One of this paper’s conclusions was that “Ultrasound stimulation emerged as the most preferred treatment choice, while pharmaceutical drugs were considered a middle-choice option and brain implants ranked last due to safety concerns.”

Microbubble Dynamics in Brain Microvessels — Insights into How Ultrasound-Driven Microbubbles Alter the Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability
James Choi, PhD, associate professor of bioengineering at Imperial College London, leads the Non-Invasive Surgery & Biopsy Laboratory. He has degrees in computer engineering (University of Michigan) and biomedical engineering (Columbia University), then conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford (UK) as a Frederick V. Hunt Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Acoustics. The mission of his laboratory is to create the next generation of noninvasive microsurgical devices for the treatment and diagnosis of diseases. Dr. Choi recieved the 2022 Frederic Lizzi Award for his contributions to focused ultrasound methods for delivering drugs to the brain.