Key Points
- Several recent meetings included focused ultrasound presentations.
- Use the links below to access meeting programs and abstract information.
- American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) 2026 Annual Meeting
- Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation (FUN) 2026
- NYC Neuromodulation Conference 2026
American Association of Physicists in Medicine 2026 Annual Meeting
The 2026 Joint Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP) was held July 19–22 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Notably, the MRI-Guided Focused Ultrasound Quality Assurance Task Group presented its first report to AAPM’s Imaging Physics Committee. The charge of this task group is to design, develop, and test both a quality assurance (QA) phantom and a QA protocol for the independent evaluation of MR-guided focused ultrasound thermal ablation treatment systems, regardless of manufacturer. The MR-guided focused ultrasound body systems report, which was published in Medical Physics on July 21, includes site comparisons and recommendations for best practices.
The following six presentations will be of interest to the focused ultrasound community (click on the link to access the full text of each abstract):
- SU-315-GPD-D-60. In-Silico Simulations of Ultrasound Imaging in the Far-Field for Therapy Monitoring by Avery Antes, Kenneth B. Bader, Eric J Galindo, and Erik Saucedo from the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- SU-315-GPD-T-383. High-Resolution CT–Guided Multiparametric Navigation of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Therapy by Penghao Gao, Yue Sun, Gongsen Zhang, and Linlin Wang from Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Shandong First Medical University, and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, China
- SU-315-GPD-T-963. Development of a Multifunctional BSA-Thpc@99mTc Nanoplatform for Dual-Modal Imaging-Guided Synergistic Sonodynamic and Radiotherapy by Liting Chen and Lina Zhao from Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi’an, China
- MO-510-211-1. Task Group No. 333: MRI-Guided Focused Ultrasound Quality Assurance by Keith A. Wear from the US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA
- TU-510-220-3. Simultaneous MRI and Ultrasound Guided Preclinical Histotripsy (MR-USgHt) System by Ryan James Hubbard, Mahmoud Komaiha, Tarana Parvez, and Zhen Xu from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- WE-1010-212-4. Measurement-Based Pressure Model to Predict Organ Deformation During Histotripsy of the Liver by Grace Minesinger, Paul F. Laeseke, Marlin E. Keller III, Katrina L Falk, Corinne R Henak, Michael A. Speidel, and Martin G. Wagner from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Search the Meeting Program for your own key words or indications of interest.
Next meeting: AAPM 2027 will be held July 25–28 in Columbus, Ohio.
Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation 2026
Organized by iTRUSST (the International Transcranial Ultrasonic Stimulation Safety and Standards Consortium), the 7th Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation (FUN) conference was held July 22–24, 2026 in Paris, France, at the PariSanté Campus. It was attended by approximately 200 academic researchers, clinicians, and device developers.
FUN2026 featured 98 poster presentations and 24 oral presentations across 6 topic areas. Search the Meeting Booklet for all abstractions and presentations.
“It was especially interesting to learn about a new tool that is now available on the ITRUSST website,” said Hongchae ‘Iris’ Baek, PhD, a program manager on the Foundation’s Research and Education Team. “The newly launched Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (TUS) Calculator uses bioheat equations and other mathematical models to estimate safety-related metrics (e.g., thermal index, mechanical index, and predicted temperature rise). The calculator is intended to support standardized reporting in line with the iTRUSST consensus recommendations while helping researchers explore how variability and uncertainty in skull acoustic properties can affect predicted ultrasound exposure and safety metrics.”
Dr. Baek added, “Building on its consensus reporting guidance, the iTRUSST Reporting Working Group is preparing to establish international measurement standards for transcranial ultrasound. Representatives of the IEC Ultrasonics Technical Committee have indicated a strong interest in potential collaboration, alongside broader engagement with researchers, manufacturers, and community experts.”
Establishing an Independent Global Standard
iTRUSST has officially incorporated as an independent entity in Delaware (in the United States). Operating under newly adopted bylaws, a dedicated board, and a formal treasury, the organization is solidifying its position as the international coordinating body for ultrasound neurotechnology. Its mission remains steadfast: enabling safe, reproducible, and clinically effective practice through global consensus and shared standards.
Redefining Safety through Probabilistic Risk Paradigms
A central theme from the sessions was the fundamental challenge of estimating in situ acoustic dose in the human brain. Because direct measurement inside living human tissue is impossible, the field relies heavily on simulations derived from animal or cadaveric data. A study from iTRUSST revealed that uncertainty in skull attenuation alone can vary predicted acoustic intensity by up to five-fold across multiple platforms. To address this, iTRUSST advocates shifting away from single deterministic dose estimates toward probabilistic risk assessments that explicitly account for acoustic variability.
Regulatory Collaboration & Regulatory Science Tools
iTRUSST working groups are producing tools that can be translated directly into standardization of reporting parameters. Notably, the TUS Calculator was designed to help researchers better understand their parameters’ safety and apply them appropriately. Furthermore, the framework for a US Food and Drug Administration Collaborative Community is under development with support from the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. Featuring several specialized working groups, its structure and formation are planned to be finalized before the FUN2027 conference in St. Louis.
Next meeting: FUN 2027 will be held May 25–28 in St. Louis, Missouri.
NYC Neuromodulation Conference 2026
The NYC Neuromodulation Conference, which is held every two years, took place July 30 through August 3 at the City College of New York. Touted as the largest international conference in 2026 focused on the technology and science of brain interfaces, this meeting is centered on both brain stimulation and interface technology.
“This conference featured a large amount of very high-quality work on focused ultrasound,” said Noah S. Philip, MD, DFAPA, professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. “I was quite impressed.”
While there are many sessions that may be of interest to the focused ultrasound community (i.e., “Making Good Decisions with Brain Stimulation”), the following sessions and presentations specifically mentioned the technology:
4. Brain Stimulation of Metabolism and Clearance: Mechanisms and Applications in Dementia (1)
- Yong An Chung, MD, PhD – Long-term ultrasound and tDCS (6 months) for Alzheimer’s
15. Deep Evoked Signature of Stimulation (1)
- Ghazaleh Darmani, PhD – Intracranial basal ganglia recordings reveal neural effects of transcranial ultrasound stimulation in humans
19. Advanced Ultrasound Neuromodulation 1 (3)
- Kim Butts Pauly, PhD – Optimized ultrasound neuromodulation for non-invasive control of behavior and physiology
- Shy Shoham, PhD# – Holographic transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation
- Xue Han, PhD – Probe the cellular and circuit mechanisms of ultrasound and DBS using voltage imaging
21. Advanced Ultrasound Neuromodulation 2 (3)
- Huiliang Wang, PhD – Rapid deep brain chemogenetics: Minimally invasive, genetically targeted deep brain stimulation is achieved using ultrasound-activated nanocrystals
- Raag Airan, MD, PhD – Ultrasonic potentiation of ketamine neuromodulation
- Brad Treeby, PhD – Through the hair: automated per-element coupling for deep-brain phased-array ultrasound neuromodulation
33. Advanced Ultrasound Neuromodulation 3: New Directions (3)
- Stavros Zanos, MD – Focused ultrasound neuromodulation of the spleen activates an anti-inflammatory response
- Noah Philip, MD – How focused is transcranial neuromodulation anyways
- Huiliang Wang, PhD – Bioadhesive hydrogel-coupled and miniaturized ultrasound transducer system for long-term, wearable neuromodulation
38. Mapping and Control 3: What’s Next (1)
- Nir Grossman, PhD – Non-invasive in vivo acoustoelectric neuromodulation and its contribution to ultrasound stimulation
O1. Oral Highlights in Transcranial Brain Stimulation (1)
- Dingyue Zhang – Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation of the hypothalamus evokes a hypothermia-hypometabolism state through activation of functionally and molecularly distinct neurons (full abstract linked below)
O6. New Physics for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation and BCI 2 – Oral Highlights (2)
- Xuandi Hou, PhD – Sono-mechanical nanostructures enable sustained and precise ultrasound brain stimulation (full abstract linked below)
- Jacob Dahill-Fuchel – Neurovisceral integration following mPFC tFUS in depression: dynamic brain-heart coupling and autonomic moderation of network change (full abstract linked below)
OD1. On-Demand: Advanced Ultrasound Neuromodulation 4 (3)
- Charlotte Stagg, PhD – Transcranial focused ultrasound–mediated neurochemical and functional connectivity changes in deep cortical regions in humans
- Elsa Fouragnan, PhD – Non-invasive ultrasonic neuromodulation: from networks to behaviour
- Jean-Francois Aubry, PhD – Deep transcranial ultrasound stimulation with personalized acoustic metamaterials for treatment-resistant depression: from single-site single-frequency stimulation to multi-site and muli-frequency stimulation
OD2. On-Demand: On-Demand Mapping and Control 4 (1)
- Jianxun Ren, PhD – Targeting the somato-cognitive action network to improve DBS, TMS, and FUS
Morning Workshop with Breakfast: Innovations and Advances in Neuromodulation Sponsored by Soterix Medical (1)
- Abhishek Datta, PhD – Advances across neuromodulation technologies (TMS, tVNS, tFUS)
Morning Workshop with Breakfast Sponsored by BRAINSONIX (2)
- Alexander Bystritsky, MD, PhD – Getting started with tFUS: from the basics to the requirements for rigorous experimentation
- Amber Hopkins – Thalamic tFUS in healthy volunteers and patients with disorders of consciousness
Abstracts Online (19)
- A15. Ex-vivo thermal and displacement assessment of low-intensity focused ultrasound on intracranial depth electrodes by Yunruo Ni, Jack Quinn, Andrew Moomaw, Liming Qiu, Katherine Scangos, Zhenhua Tian, Jason Raymond, and Wynn Legon
- A17. Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation of the hypothalamus evokes a hypothermia-hypometabolism state through activation of functionally and molecularly distinct neurons by Dingyue Zhang, Leqi Yang, Yimei Yue, Jinyun Yuan, and Hong Chen
- A83. Frequency-dependent bidirectional control of dopamine release by transcranial focused ultrasound targeting of the substantia nigra by Jonas Bendig, Samuel G. Blackman, Seongyeon Kim, David Sulzer, and Elisa E. Konofagou
- B20. Minimal effects of neuro-navigated transcranial ultrasound stimulation to human lateral geniculate nucleus on visual perception or visual cortical responses by Martin T W Scott, Patricia Limon, Morteza Mohammadjavadi, Benjamin R Kop, Kim Butts-Pauly, Anthony M Norcia, and Ryan T Ash
- B32. Empirical limitations of current low-intensity focused ultrasound simulation platforms by Brooke R Staveland, Sierra D Brandts, Ananya Madhusudhan, Ryan T Ash, Tommaso Di Ianni, Leo P Sugrue, Andrew D Krystal, and Khaled Moussawi
- B40. Sono-mechanical nanostructures enable sustained and precise ultrasound brain stimulation by Xuandi Hou, Jianing Jing, Zhuohan Shi, Yizhou Jiang, and Lei Sun
- B55. Neurovisceral integration following mPFC tFUS in depression: dynamic brain-heart coupling and autonomic moderation of network change by Jessica N Schachtner, Jacob F Dahill-Fuchel, Katja E Allen, Christopher R Bawiec, Peter J Hollender, Sarah B Ornellas, Soren D Konecky, Achal S Achrol, and John JB Allen
- B69. Evaluating noise masking efficacy for transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation by Ahmadreza Keihani, Omeed Chiachian, Claudio Sanguineti, Khaled Moussawi, Mary L. Philips, and Fabio Ferrarelli
- C18. Preliminary evidence for lasting effects of low intensity focused ultrasound on chronic pain related brain networks by Saman Gholipour Picha and Wynn Legon*
- C32. Noninvasive enhancement of attention via ultrasound stimulation of deep brain circuits by Hamidreza Ramezanpour, Ghazaleh Darmani, Regina Annirood, Can Sarica, Jean-Francois Nankoo, Samuel Pichardo, Jeffrey Schall, Andres M. Lozano, and Robert Chen
- C54. To modulate or lesion: baseline DRTT microstructure differentially influences DBS and MRgFUS efficacy by Benjamin Hammond, Ha Neul Song, Ki Sueng Choi, Brian H Kopell, Michael Pourfar, Yvonne W Lui, Alon Mogilner, and Sohae Chung
- C73. Default mode network neuromodulation to treat depression via non-invasive transcranial focused ultrasound: acute and sustained effects by Jessica N Schachtner, Jacob F Dahill-Fuchel, Diheng Zhang, Katja E Allen, Christopher R Bawiec, Peter J Hollender, Sarah B Ornellas, Soren D Konecky, Achal S Achrol, and John JB Allen
- C82. Evaluation of low-intensity focused ultrasound neuromodulation of the anterior midcingulate cortex in patients with chronic pain by Aditya Kapoor and Wynn Legon
- C99. Behavioral effects of targeting the central thalamus and pulvinar with transcranial ultrasound stimulation in healthy volunteers by Amber Hopkins and Martin Monti
- NoID. Focused ultrasound stimulation of the preoptic hypothalamus evokes a torpor-like state in non-torpid mammals by Leqi Yang, Dingyue Zhang, Jinyun Yuan, Yaoheng Yang, Yimei Yue, and Hong Chen
- NoID. Transcranial functional ultrasound imaging reveals dose-dependent and vascular-architecture-shaped hemodynamic responses to focused ultrasound stimulation in non-human primates by Saachi Munot, Samuel Blackman, Sergio Jiménez Gambin, Jonas Bendig, and Elisa Konofagou
- NoID. The effects of transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) on bodily attention by Gabriel Mackie, Veronica Forslund, Georgia Bozianu, Ella Moriarty, Elsa Fouragnan, and Camilla L Nord
- NoID. Ultrasonic neuromodulation: toward reliable target engagement by Jan Kubanek
- NoID. Facilitating mindfulness training with ultrasonic neuromodulation by Brian Lord, Erica N Lord, Jessica Schachtner, Laura Beaman, Shinzen Young, John JB Allen, and Joseph L Sanguinetti
Several focused ultrasound companies were included among the sponsors for this meeting.