Key Points
- Eight recent conferences and webinars featured focused ultrasound presentations.
- Use the links below to access the meeting programs and abstract information.
Chad Tough Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) Workshop
The ChadTough Defeat DIPG 2025 Workshop was held May 9–10 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. With a theme of “Collaborating for a Cure,” this event was designed to provide a collaboration and sharing forum for DIPG/DMG and allow families to receive updates on recent advances and network with researchers.
On Friday, Carl Koschmann, MD, and Sriram Venneti, MD, PhD, from the University of Michigan presented the overview of DIPG and diffuse midline glioma (DMG). Dr. Venneti discussed cancer metabolism, emphasizing the potential of citrate and glutamate as biomarkers of therapeutic response. He reiterated the importance of understanding metabolic modulation to enhance the efficacy of other treatments, including immunotherapy, and highlighted the role of metabolic reprogramming in DMG, driven by mutations and the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Koschmann emphasized the value of tumoroids as advanced in vitro models that better replicate tumor biology and support precision oncology by capturing tumor heterogeneity.
In the first plenary session, Nicholas Vitanza, MD, from Seattle Children’s Hospital presented updates on the BrainChild immunotherapy trial and his ongoing research into how the microenvironment affects chimeric antigen receptor–T cell infiltration. Claudia Kleinman, PhD, from McGill University explored the DMG epigenome and tumor landscape. In the second plenary session, Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, from Stanford University Department of Medicine, shared her work on the regulation of proliferation and functional differentiation in the oligodendroglial lineage, highlighting the role of GABAergic receptors in DMGs as a depolarizing mechanism that can stimulate tumor growth, with relevance to sodium, GABA, and potassium channels. Then David Ziegler, MD, PhD, from the University of New South Wales, stressed the importance of sequencing drug combinations and noted that germline mutations (potential predisposition) are found in approximately 7% of DMGs.
In the DIPG/DMG Resources session, Daniela Ciccolini, MSN, RN, shared resources available from the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation. Sabine Mueller, MD, PhD, from the University of California–San Francisco, provided updates on Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC) clinical trials. I-Mei Siu, PhD, described the American Association for Cancer Research Cancer Discovery journal.
The topics for concurrent breakout sessions were Immune + Neurotoxicity, DIPG/DMG “Omics” Spatial/Single Cell, and Clinical/Correlate studies of DIPG/DMG. The Saturday session included two keynote speeches. Suzanne Baker, PhD, from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital presented “Cell State Regulation in the Origins and Pathogenesis of Diffuse Midline Glioma,” where she reviewed the biology of histone mutations and emerging technologies aimed at targeting them. In his talk, “Drug Development in Pediatric Brain Tumors,” Sam Blackman, MD, PhD, offered a broad overview of the drug development landscape, highlighting both the challenges and opportunities in pediatric brain tumor research. The meeting ended with roundtable discussions between researchers and family foundations on Friday’s breakout sessions.
The Foundation thanks Javad Nazarian, PhD, head of the DIPG/DMG Research Center at University Children’s Hospital Zürich, for submitting this meeting report.
Unlocking Next-Generation Therapies by Friends of Cancer Research
On May 9, Friends of Cancer Research (FCR) held a meeting in Washington, DC, on Unlocking Next-Generation Therapies. As the title implies, the focus of the 3-hour conference was unlocking cellular therapies for the treatment of rare diseases. A white paper, “Regulatory and Manufacturing Pathways to Expand Access to Genetically Modified Cell-Based Therapies,” summarizes FCR’s efforts to identify sustainable approaches and innovative policies that expand the availability of cell therapies.
Frédéric Padilla, PhD, director of the Foundation’s Gene Therapy Program, attended the meeting. “The recent Friends of Cancer Research and Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy meeting brought together key stakeholders to address critical challenges in cell therapy development and manufacturing,” said Dr. Padilla. “The discussions highlighted the urgent need for innovative regulatory frameworks and economic models to make these breakthrough treatments accessible, particularly for rare diseases. It was encouraging to see the emphasis on developing platform-based approaches and exploring creative solutions for cost-effective manufacturing and delivery. As we work to advance focused ultrasound’s role in improving cell therapy delivery, these conversations about streamlining development pathways while maintaining rigorous safety standards are particularly relevant to our mission.”
American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy (ASCGT): Focused Ultrasound Featured at Leading Gene Therapy Meeting
Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Conference
SNO’s 2025 Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Conference was held May 15–17 in San Diego, California. Its scientific program included the use of artificial intelligence for diagnostic and prognostic purposes, novel insights into the tumor microenvironment, updates on tumor modeling and subtypes, and immunotherapeutic advances tailored for pediatric patients. Hot topics included targeting epigenetic drivers in pediatric brain tumors, harnessing CAR T-cell therapies, and advances in precision medicine. Discussions will also focus on survivorship, quality of life, and the late effects of treatment.
“It was wonderful to connect with researchers, clinicians, and parent advocates I have now known for many years,” said Lauren Hadley, MD, MBA, the Foundation’s associate director of the Research and Education Team, who attended the conference. “I also learn about new projects that will be of interest to the focused ultrasound community.”
The Liquid Biopsy for Pediatric Brain Tumors session was moderated by Erin Crotty, MD (Seattle Children’s Hospital) and Carl Koschmann, MD (University of Michigan Medical School). It included three presentations and a Q&A discussion from the following invited speakers:
- CSF Liquid Biopsy for CNS Cancer Diagnosis and Disease Monitoring by Cynthia Hawkins, MD, PhD, from the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto
- Approaches to Enhance Liquid Biopsies by Leveraging cfDNA Biology by Shervin Tabrizi, MD, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston
- Clinical Application of CSF cfDNA Testing in Children and Young Adults with Primary Brain Tumors: The MSK Kids Experience by Matthias Karajannis, MD, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York
Posters
DMG-23 Breaking Barriers: Focused Ultrasound-Enhanced RNA-Nanoparticle Therapy for Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG) by Rachel Moor, Jeet Patel, Savannah Carpenter, Dhruvkumar Soni, Frances Weidert, Duane Mitchell, Elias Sayour, and Christina von Roemeling from the University of Florida
DMG-39 Sonodynamic Therapy with 5-Aminolevulinic Acid and Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma: A Single Patient Cytokine and Metabolomic Profiling by Gregory Keating, Caroline Kopsidas, Ayda Woldegerima, Shefali Singh, Hathout Yetrib, Roger Packer, John Myseros, Hasan Syed, Lindsay Kilburn, Adriana Fonseca, and Javad Nazarian from Children’s National Hospital, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital, and University Children’s Hospital Zurich
Search all Abstracts and Posters
Next: The next SNO Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Conference will be held in two years, in Miami June 24–26, 2027.
How Focused Ultrasound is Changing Alzheimer’s Treatment
On May 15, 2025, the BrightFocus Foundation hosted a webinar featuring Ali R. Rezai, MD, a leader in neuroscience and neuromodulation. The conversation highlighted how Dr. Rezai is using focused ultrasound to open new possibilities in Alzheimer’s research and care by temporarily opening the blood-brain barrier, enhancing the delivery of anti-amyloid antibodies, enabling brain biopsies for biomarker research, and improving brain function through neuromodulation.
American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) 2025 Annual Meeting
With a theme of “Neuroimaging: Shaping the Future Together,” ASNR held its annual meeting May 17–21, 2025, in Philadelphia. The society has a professional membership of nearly 6,000 physicians who specialize in diagnostic radiology of diseases of the central nervous system, brain, head and neck, through the use of x-ray, MRI, CT, and angiography.
“There was a great presentation on the effect of music on the brain,” said Suzanne LeBlang, MD, the Foundation’s director of clinical relationships and a neuroradiologist who attended the conference. “It showed that patients who listen to music before surgery have a downregulated fight or flight response as compared with patients who do not. Furthermore, stroke patients are able to sing sentences that they cannot speak, and this is used as a progression for speech retraining because the music increases the number of neural connections.”
ASNR sessions featured many new developments in diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s disease, including how to optimize anti-amyloid antibody treatment, the use of a new blood test for earlier diagnosis, and the use of neuroimaging to support early diagnosis and improve care. The data are now showing that as many as 25% of all patients with Alzheimer’s disease cannot tolerate anti-amyloid medications (i.e., lecanemab or donanemab), because they develop amyloid-related imaging abnormalities on MRI scans and/or clinical symptoms as a result of the medications and must discontinue treatment. Finally, the use of anti-amyloid medications had led to a large increase in the number of patients who want Alzheimer’s screening with an increased number of positron emission tomography (or PET) and MRI scans being done.
“There may be a new subset of Alzheimer’s patients who have a positive biomarker but are not yet clinically symptomatic,” said Dr. LeBlang. “It will be interesting to see how much we can halt the progression of the disease in addition to the typical 35% decreased rate on the anti-amyloid antibodies alone.”
Insightec sponsored a lunch and learn “Innovation Theater” and held a user meeting tailored to the neuroradiology community.
The following sessions may be of interest to the focused ultrasound community:
MR Guided Focused Ultrasound Study Group Programming: Frontier of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound
- The Role of the Neuroradiologist in Transcranial Focused Ultrasound: HIFU and BBB Opening – Bhavya Shah
- The Impact on Patients – Dr. Shah’s Patient, Dr. Webbe
- The Future of FUS – Tim Kaufmann
- Panel Discussion – Fabricio Feltrin, Tim Kaufmann, Leo Sugrue, Lubdha Shah, Raag Airan, and Vance Lehman
Gene & Cell Therapy Study Group Programming: Gene & Cell Therapy: The Next Frontier
- The Gene & Cell Therapy Toolbox – Kazim Narsinh
- Focused Ultrasound: Targeted Blood Brain Barrier Disruption for Therapeutic Delivery – Bhavya Shah
- Imaging Gene and Protein Expression – Jana Ivanidze
- Application: Genetic Treatments in Neuro-oncology – Ramon Barajas
Excerpta
932: Chronic Alteration in Cerebral FDG Metabolism after MRI-guided HIFU for Essential Tremor – A Case with PET and MRI Correlation by Alexander R Asturias, Nghi Nguyen, Fabricio Feltrin, Orhan Oz, and Bhavya Shah from UT Southwestern Medical Center
Scientific Abstract Power Pitches & Luminary Speaker: Advanced Imaging and Neurodegenerative Diseases
1109: Clinical Outcomes of Staged Bilateral MR-guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy Utilizing Four-tract Tractography Targeting for Treatment of Essential Tremor by Parker Lawson, Nil Saez Calveras, Padraig O’Suilleabhain, and Bhavya Shah from UT Southwestern Medical Center
E Poster Session
1184: Targeted Blood Brain barrier Opening Enhances Delivery of Sonodynamic Therapy Agent by Deepshikha Bhardwaj, Samuel Achilefu, Walter Akers, Nisha Gamadia, and Bhavya R Shah from UT Southwestern Medical Center
Search the ASNR 2025 Meeting Program
ASNR 2026 is scheduled for May 16–20 in Austin.
Acoustical Society of America
The 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America was held jointly with the 25th International Congress on Acoustics in New Orleans, Louisiana, from May 18–23, 2025.
Christy Holland, PhD (University of Cincinnati ) and Eleanor Stride, PhD (University of Oxford) co-chaired a session on cavitation dose. In this session, the Foundation’s director of the Gene Therapy Program, Frédéric Padilla, PhD, was invited to present with co-author, J. Brian Fowlkes, PhD, professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Their presentation was titled “Clinical Needs and Standardization of Cavitation Monitoring in Focused Ultrasound Therapies” (abstract 2aBAa1). All of the presentations in that session are listed below.
“I couldn’t attend the meeting, but the feedback was overwhelmingly positive on the session organized by Christy Holland and Eleanor Stride,” said Dr. Padilla. “Participants broadly agreed that developing a framework to measure and monitor cavitation in clinical applications of therapeutic ultrasound would be highly beneficial—if not essential. Work is currently underway to prepare technical report aimed at standardizing cavitation measurements in therapeutic ultrasound—an effort in which the Focused Ultrasound Foundation has been involved from the outset. We believe this will be an important first step toward standardizing procedures and, in the near future, enabling the formulation of cavitation ‘dose’ concepts, reporting guidelines, and more.”
Hong Chen, PhD, associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, was honored as an ASA Fellow.
Abstracts
1aPAa: Acoustic Holograms and Wavefront Modulation Techniques
- 1aPAa1: Multifrequency and multifocal acoustic holograms in complex media: applications to transcranial ultrasound focusing by Jean-Francois Aubry* from CNRS Physics for Medicine Paris
- 1aPAa2: Hologram-assisted focused ultrasound for brain therapy by Sergio Jiménez-Gambín*, Noé Jiménez, Francisco Camarena, and Elisa Konofagou from Columbia University
- 1aPAa3: A library of acoustic holograms for precise targeting of murine brain regions by Rachel Burstow* and Antonios Pouliopoulos from King’s College London
- 1aPAa4: Acoustic holograms for both therapy and monitoring transcranial ultrasound by Noé Jiménez*, Nathalie Lamothe, Diana Andrés, Alicia Carrión, José Pineda-Pardo, Alba Eroles-Simó, Víctor Vegas-Luque, María Pérez-Sirvent, Juan Rodríguez-García, José Alonso-Ramos, Francisco Camarena from Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular (I3M), Universitat Politècnica de València, and HM CINAC
2aBAa: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble – Towards a Cavitation Dose I
- 2aBAa1: Clinical Needs and Standardization of Cavitation Monitoring in Focused Ultrasound Therapies by Frederic Padilla and J. Brian Fowlkes* from the Focused Ultrasound Foundation and the University of Michigan
- 2aBAa3: Cellular trouble for cavitation dose monitoring in microbubble-mediated drug delivery? by Klazina Kooiman* from Erasmus MC Rotterdam
- 2aBAa4: Bubbles behaving badly – dose vs. threshold in cavitation classification by Qiang Wu, Michael Gray, Cameron Smith, Luca Bau, Constantin Coussios, Robin Cleveland, and Eleanor Stride* from the University of Oxford
- 2aBAa5: Bubble, bubble, sonic trouble: Cavitation dose and therapeutic close by Christy Holland, Daniel Suarez Escudero, Kevin Haworth*, and Curtis Genstler from the University of Cincinnati, Cardiawave, and Boston Scientific
- 2aBAa6: Cavitation radiated energy density (CRED): An energy-preserving spatiotemporal cavitation dose metric by Cameron Smith, Luca Bau, Abigail Collins, Darcy Dunn-Lawless, Michael Gray, and Constantin Coussios* from the University of Oxford
- 2aBAa7: Measure for measure: diffraction correction for consistent quantification of bubble-related acoustic emissions by T. Douglas Mast* from the University of Cincinnati
- 2aBAa8: Sound and fury, signifying something? Technical challenges in cavitation dosimetry by Michael Gray* from the University of Oxford
2aCA: Computational Methods for Nonlinear Problems in Acoustics and Vibration
- 2aCA1: Simulating ultrasound propagation through a contaminated nanobubble population by Nicholas Ovenden*, Mihir Sheth, Qiang Wu, and Eleanor Stride from University College London and the University of Oxford
2pBAa: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble – Towards a Cavitation Dose II
- 2pBAa1: Using acoustic emissions to monitor and control ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier disruption by Nathan McDannold* from Brigham and Women’s Hospital
- 2pBAa2: Acoustic emission-based estimation of weakly nonlinear microbubble dynamics by Hohyun Lee*, Reza Pakdaman Zangabad, and Costas Arvanitis from the Georgia Institute of Technology
- 2pBAa3: Inertial cavitation dose applied to two systems: hemolysis of red blood cells and killing of bacteria cells by Thomas Matula*, Pratik Ambekar, Vera Khokhlova, and Yak-Nam Wang from the University of Washington
- 2pBAa6: Chop, grind, puree, liquefy – how to set the right dose on your new histotripsy blender by Jonathan Sukovich*, Timothy Hall, Scott Haskell, Mahmoud Komaiha, Joseph Lynch, and Zhen Xu from the University of Michigan
- 2pBAa8: Combination of gemcitabine with regulated inertial and stable cavitation on a 3D in vitro pancreatic tumour model by Maxime Lafond, Adrien Rohfritsch, Andrew Drainville, Marine Simonneau, Jacqueline Ngo, Magali Perier, and Cyril Lafon* from LabTAU INSERM
3pBA: General Topics in Biomedical Acoustics: Cavitation
- 3pBA1: Machine learning-assisted closed-loop focused ultrasound for targeted nanoparticle delivery and liquid biopsy in the brain by Hohyun Lee*, Victor Menezes, Chulyong Kim, Cynthia Baseman, Jae Hyun Kim, Samhita Padmanabhan, Pranav Premdas, Naima Djeddar, Anton Bryksin, Nikhil Pandey, Pavlos Anastasiadis, Anthony Kim, Graeme Woodworth, and Costas Arvanitis from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland School of Medicine
- 3pBA2: Can focused ultrasound sensitize androgen-independent prostate cancer cells to antiandrogen therapy? by Jeannette Nyiramana* and Damir Khismatullin from Tulane University
- 3pBA5: Effect of elastic modulus and fiber spacing on boiling histotripsy bubble dynamics in collagenous tissues by Jacob Elliott* and Julianna Simon from Pennsylvania State University
- 3pBA6: Effect of focused ultrasound–induced heat and cavitation on methicillin-resistant Staphycoccus aureus viability and the role of bacterial structural features in susceptibility to cavitation by Pratik Ambekar*, Yak-Nam Wang, Vera Khokhlova, Gilles Thomas, David Giraud, Kaizer Contreras, Daniel Leotta, Matthew Bruce, Stephanie Totten, Jeff Thiel, Keith Chan, W Conrad Liles, Evan P. Dellinger, Adeyinka Adedipe, Wayne Monsky, and Thomas Matula from the University of Washington andVantage Radiology and Diagnostic Services
4aBAa: Bubbles and Ultrasound – Physiological Considerations I
- 4aBAa3: Histotripsy has an abscopal effect and induces an adaptive immune response in a neuroblastoma syngeneic model by Natalia Antonides-Jensen, Fernando Flores-Guzman, Muskan Singh, Jacky Gomez-Villa, Lydia Wu, Daniela Olivera-Velarde, Erik Saucedo, Timothy Hall, Kenneth Bader, and Sonia Hernandez* from the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan
- 4aBAa4: Assessment of an image-guided histotripsy system for renal cell carcinoma by Muskan Singh*, George Schade, Vishwas Trivedi, Abhinav Kumar, Himanshu Shekhar, Adam Maxwell, and Kenneth Bader from the University of Chicago, University of Washington, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
4aBAb: Wave Propagation and Aberration in Complex Media: From Theory to Applications I
- 4aBAb3: Aberration correction for trans-skull histotripsy by Timothy Hall*, Jonathan Sukovich, Ning Lu, Ellen Yeats, and Zhen Xu from the University of Michigan and Stanford University
4pBAb: Wave Propagation and Aberration in Complex Media: From Theory to Applications II
- 4pBAb8. Leveraging the parametric array effect for transcranial focused ultrasound interventions by student author Pradosh Pritam Dash mentored by Costas Arvanitis at Georgia Institute of Technology
- 4pBAb9. Simulating performance of a through-transmit aberration correction method for transcranial focused ultrasound by student author Cooper L Donovan mentored by Charles Caskey at Vanderbilt University
- 4pBAb10. Simulating focused ultrasound propagation through heterogeneous biomedical materials with volume-surface integral equation methods and hierarchical matrix compression by student author Alberto Almuna Morales with Danilo Aballay, Pierre Gélat, and Elwin van ‘t Wout from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and University College London
4pBAa: Bubbles and Ultrasound – Physiological Considerations II
- 4pBAa2: Bubble-enhanced ultrasound and radiation in healthy brain tissue: Exploring the parameter space for a novel neurosurgical tool by Stecia-Marie Fletcher*, Tiago Oliveira, Michael Lavelle, Yongzhi Zhang, Chanikarn Power, Ross Berbeco, and Nathan McDannold from Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute
- 4pBAa4: Optimizing ultrasound parameters for enhanced sonodynamic therapy: A physical approach to tumor treatment by Giovanni Durando*, Fabio Saba, Alessandro Schiavi, Loredana Serpe, Federica Foglietta, and Roberto Canaparo from INRiM National Institute of Metrological Research and the University of Torino
- 4pBAa5: Exploring the role of sonoluminescence in sonodynamic therapy by James McLeod*, Luca Bau, Stephanie Walton, Jovana Katrinka Mavrak, Richard Lane, John Callan, Anthony McHale, Daniele Faccio, and Eleanor Stride from the University of Glasgow, Ulster University, and the University of Oxford
ASA’s 189th meeting is scheduled as a joint meeting with the Acoustical Society of Japan (ASJ). The joint ASA/ASJ meeting will be held December 1–5, 2025, as an in-person meeting with no remote participation. The abstract deadline for the 189th meeting is July 28, 2025, and there will be a special Focused Ultrasound session on “Data-Driven Focused Ultrasound Interventions”—a discussion on how data science is transforming focused ultrasound treatment planning, monitoring, prediction, and assessment. The session will cover both thermal ablation and cavitation-mediated therapies, including drug delivery, histotripsy, and BBB opening.
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025
ASCO 2025 was held May 25 through June 3 in Chicago. As the world’s leading professional organization for physicians and oncology professionals caring for people with cancer, ASCO’s more than 200 sessions are attended by more than 40,000 people each year.
Several focused ultrasound presentations were included in the conference, including updates on three brain cancer clinical trials and a preclinical liver metastases immunotherapy study. Each of these abstracts is listed below.
Clinical Science Symposium
Multicenter trial of microbubble-enhanced transcranial focused ultrasound (MB-FUS) with monthly adjuvant temozolomide for patients with high-grade gliomas presented by Graeme Woodworth from the University of Maryland School of Medicine
Posters
A multicenter, randomized, controlled, pivotal trial of microbubble-enhanced transcranial focused ultrasound for patients with NSCLC brain metastases (LIMITLESS) presented by Manmeet Ahluwalia from Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida (Also see video in AJMC)
A multicenter, pivotal trial of microbubble-enhanced transcranial focused ultrasound (MB-FUS) for plasma-based liquid biopsy in patients with glioblastoma (LIBERATE) presented by Manmeet Ahluwalia from Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida
The effect of HIFU treatment on liver metastasis of colorectal cancer in mice and its impact on immunity presented by Shasha Wang from the Department of Medical Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University
Publication Only
External beam radiation therapy for salvage after focal therapy as primary treatment in prostate adenocarcinoma presented by Kayeong Shin from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Search All ASCO 2025 Meeting Content
ASCO 2026 will be held May 29 – June 2 in Chicago and online.