Key Points
- The European focused ultrasound community convened in Vienna, Austria on April 9–10, 2026.
- Pascale Broks, MBA, the Focused Ultrasound Foundation’s executive director for Europe, presented a talk describing the Foundation’s activities there.
The 8th European Symposium on Focused Ultrasound Therapy was held April 9–10 in Vienna, Austria. The venue was Billrothhaus, home of Vienna’s venerable Society of Physicians, a historic place where generations of physicians have met to advance medical knowledge.
With the theme of “Focused Ultrasound of the Brain,” approximately 110 scientists, engineers, neurologists, psychiatrists/psychologists, and representatives from industry gathered to hear short and long oral presentations, view posters, and network with experts from around the world.
Foundation Participation
Pascale Broks, MBA, the Focused Ultrasound Foundation’s executive director for Europe, Judith van Kranenburg, development director for Europe, and consultant Emily White, MD, attended the symposium. Pascale presented “Independent Funding and Expert Review for European Research,” to describe the What, Why, and How of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation’s activities in Europe.
“It was encouraging to see how rapidly the focused ultrasound community in Europe is evolving,” said Pascale. “Our presentation about the Foundation’s substantive role within the focused ultrasound landscape — and how we aim to support and strengthen the European research and scientific community — was very well received and led to valuable discussions about future collaboration opportunities.”
“A key takeaway from the symposium is that there is already extensive collaboration between physicians, medical centers, and university hospitals across Europe (and globally),” said Judith. “It will be easier to build on these established partnerships, and it was also great to see how much data are already being collected.”
Overview
The symposium’s clinically oriented program was divided into the following sessions, with each presentation listed:
Neuromodulation (4)
- Overview, Advances and Demands in Clinical Ultrasound Neuromodulation by Eva Matt and Roland Beisteiner (Vienna, Austria)
- Clinical Ultrasound Neuromodulation in Movement Disorders by Robert Chen (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
- Clinical Ultrasound Neuromodulation in Psychiatric Disorders by Jan Kubanek (St. Louis, Missouri, USA)
- Confounds in Clinical Ultrasound Neuromodulation by Michael Mitterwallner (Vienna, Austria)
Safety (4)
- Clinical Safety in Relation to Different Ultrasound Technologies by Daniel Razansky (Zurich, Switzerland)
- Biophysical Safety of Ultrasound Neuromodulation by Elly Martin (London, United Kingdom)
- Regulatory Issues with Focused Ultrasound by Steffen Tretbar (Sulzbach, Germany)
- Panel Discussion
Ultrasound Neuromodulation: Cellular, Imaging and Physical Markers (4)
- Cellular Mechanisms of Ultrasound Neuromodulation by Ivan Suarez and Apoutou N‘Djin (Lyon, France)
- Transcranial Ultrasound Neuromodulation: Insights from Non-Human Primates Imaging Studies by Jerome Sallet (Lyon, France and Oxford, United Kingdom)
- Quantification of Acoustic Pressure in the Brain by Elly Martin (London, United Kingdom)
- Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound of the Human Amygdala Reveals a Causal Role in Emotional Processing by Miruna Rascu and Miriam Klein-Flügge (Oxford, United Kingdom)
Sonodynamic Therapy (2)
- Developing Sonodynamic Therapy Trials for Glioblastoma by Richard Wakefield (London, United Kingdom)
- Need for Consensus Sonication Parameters for Treatment of Glioblastoma with Sonodynamic Therapy by Kismet Hossain-Ibrahim (Dundee, United Kingdom)
Mixed Oral Contributions (11)
- Electrophysiological Effects of Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (TUS) of the Motor Cortex in Epilepsy by Lara Hogeveen (Gent, Belgium)
- Focused Ultrasound for Blood-Brain Barrier Opening in Brain Tumor Patients: Technical Nuances by Massimiliano Del Bene (Milan, Italy)
- Towards Repeated, Image-Guided FUS-Enhanced Chemoradiotherapy for Glioblastoma: Preclinical Evidence by Sebastien Rigollet (Grenoble, France)
- Cranial Sonolucent Prosthesis: A Window of Opportunity for Neuro‑Oncology (and Neuro‑Surgery) by Massimiliano Del Bene (Milan, Italy)
- Simultaneous Bilateral Transcranial MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy in Parkinson‘s Disease: Case Report by Armen Simonyan (Moscow, Russia)
- Transcranial MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound Pallidothalamic Tractotomy in the Treatment of Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesias in Parkinson‘s Disease by Armen Simonyan (Moscow, Russia)
- Patients Undergoing MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Essential Tremor show Variable Risk Attitudes by Pejman Ghanouni (Stanford, California, USA)
- Reducing Gene Therapy Dose Delivery Across the Blood-Nerve Barrier into Peripheral Nerves using Focused Ultrasound by Kyriakos Michail (Nicosia, Cyprus)
- MRI-Guided Transurethral Ultrasound Ablation (TULSA) for Localized Prostate Cancer: Technology and Early Outcomes of Randomized Trial versus Robotic Prostatectomy by Pejman Ghanouni (Stanford, California, USA)
- Advances Towards Achieving Transcranial Acoustic Radiation Force Imaging (ARFI) within Strict (FDA) Limits for Diagnostic Ultrasound by Till Handel (Leipzig, Germany)
- Homology Between 3T FGATIR Images and Klüver-Barrera–Stained Human Brain Sections in the Thalamus by Takefumi Higashijima (Yokohama, Japan)
Ablation/Blood–Brain Barrier Opening (BBBO) (4)
- Overview and advances in HIFU Ablation by Andres Lozano (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
- Overview and Advances in BBBO by Nir Lipsman (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
- HIFU for Movement Disorders by Raul Martinez (Barcelona, Spain)
- HIFU for Psychiatric Disorders by Guillem Lera-Calatayud (Valencia, Spain)
Challenges and Opportunities in Establishing a HIFU Program in an Academic European Center (4)
- “Starting to Walk” – Initial Steps and Challenges in Guiding a HIFU Center
- Neurology: Christoph Brücke (Vienna, Austria)
- Radiology: Philipp Moser (Vienna, Austria)
- Neurosurgery: Klaus Novak (Vienna, Austria)
- “Starting to Run” – Implementing HIFU as a Routine Tool in Clinics by Lennart Stieglitz (Zurich, Switzerland)
Novel Approaches (3)
- Fully Electronically Steered Ultrasound Transmit Receive Array for Clinical Brain Treatments by Kullervo Hynynen (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
- Miniaturized Focused Ultrasound Microchips for Minimally Invasive Treatments of Brain Disorders by Tiago L. Costa (Delft, The Netherlands)
- Noninvasive Histotripsy Brain Treatment by Zhen Xu (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA)
Mixed Oral Contributions (9)
- Neural Correlates of Symptom Improvement in Essential Tremor: A Longitudinal Study of Spontaneous Motor Activity Post-MRgFUS Thalamotomy by Letizia Clementi (Milan, Italy)
- Neurotransmitter Functional Reorganization after MRgFUS Thalamotomy in essential tremor by Mario Stanziano (Milan, Italy)
- Longitudinal Changes in Myelin Content Within Lesion (Zone II) After MRgFUS Treatment in Essential Tremor: A Quantitative Analysis Using Myelin Imaging by Toshio Yamaguchi (Japan)
- Austrian Experience with Sonovein HD by Ferdinand Steinbacher (Melk, Austria)
- Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation of Mediodorsal Thalamus Disrupts Decision Flexibility During Reward Learning by Isla Barnard (Dundee, United Kingdom)
- Advancing a Translational Pipeline for Ultrasound Neuromodulation in 3MP-FUS: EEG Confound Control, Reward Circuit Targeting and Concurrent MRI-TUS Readiness by Niklas Kroner-Weigl (Munich, Germany)
- Blood–Brain Barrier Opening Does Not Increase Plasma Extracellular Vesicle Concentration in Glioblastoma Patients: Integrating Safety Mechanisms into Sonodynamic Therapy for Glioblastoma by Massimiliano Del Bene (Milan, Italy)
- Spatially Programmable Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (PMUT) Arrays for Micro-Localized Mechanotransduction and Stem Cell Differentiation by Rashmi Ramesh (Leuven, Belgium)
- A New Transcranial FUS System with Navigated Targeting Using Volumetric Beam Steering Capabilities by Steffen Tretbar (Sulzbach, Germany)
Poster Abstracts
Beyond the short and long oral presentation abstracts, there were 14 posters on display at the meeting.
Sponsorship
Along with gold sponsorship from the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, further supporters included Brainbox, CureGBM, Openwater Health, Herzfelder Foundation Vienna, Rogue Research, Inc., Spire Therapeutics, Inc., and Meeting Destination Vienna.
Social Event
On the evening of April 9, attendees enjoyed a Viennese Heuriger (wine tavern) evening in a cozy courtyard with local wines, hearty food, and traditional Viennese Schrammelmusik (folk music)—a true taste of Vienna.