Key Points
- ISTU 2025 featured a strong focus on neuromodulation, with numerous presentations covering preclinical and clinical developments.
- The Focused Ultrasound Foundation sponsored two clinical panels.
The International Symposium for Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU) 2025 was held June 21–24, 2025, in Banff, Alberta, Canada, and virtually. (Virtual registration is still available.) This annual meeting convenes approximately 300 researchers, clinicians, industry professionals, and students from around the world who are working on a wide array of therapeutic ultrasound applications. ISTU provides a forum for sharing the latest research in focused ultrasound and related modalities, including drug delivery, neuromodulation, oncology, and more. The event is organized by the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound and regularly features speakers from academia, medicine, and industry.
This year’s program continued ISTU’s tradition of emphasizing technical and translational developments, with a particularly strong presence of neuromodulation-related presentations. The Focused Ultrasound Foundation sponsored two clinical panels: one on brain applications and one on body applications.
“A highlight for me was the presentation of the data from the multisite glioblastoma clinical trial using blood-brain barrier opening before temozolomide administration, because they showed a clear survival benefit in that study,” said Chrit Moonen, PhD, a managing director and the co-director of the Foundation’s Research and Education Team. “Another highlight was Nathan McDannold’s presentation on an analysis of hundreds of patients treated for essential tremor, correlating target location with tremor reduction and unwanted side effects.”
“The clinical panels were highly engaging,” said Lauren Hadley, MD, MBA, associate director of the Foundation’s Research and Education Team. “I noticed a general lack of clinician participation and presence among the audience during those sessions, highlighting an ongoing need to broaden clinical engagement across all therapeutic ultrasound applications and especially those involving body indications.”
Award Winners
For the President’s Award, Gail ter Haar, PhD, from The Institute of Cancer Research presented “Nice Idea, It Will Never Work – Proving the Sceptics Wrong.”
The William and Francis Fry Honorary Fellowship for Contributions to Therapeutic Ultrasound was presented to Douglas Miller, PhD, from the University of Michigan Medical School. His talk was titled, “Appraisal of Cavitation and Gas Body Activation in Therapeutic Ultrasound.”
The Frederic Lizzi Early Career Award, which was sponsored by Onda, was given to Himanshu Shekhar, PhD, from the Indian Institute of Technology Medical Ultrasound Engineering Lab. He presented, “Musings in Therapeutic Ultrasound: From Bubbles to Beamforming and Beyond.”
Ying Meng, MD, PhD, from Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto, received the Early Career Clinical Investigator Award. The title of her presentation was, “MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound in Neurologic Applications, the Past and Future.”
Plenary Talks
- Robert Chen, MA, MBBChir, MSc, FRCPC, from the Krembil Research Institute and University of Toronto, presented “Transcranial Ultrasound Neuromodulation for Movement Disorders.”
- Francesco Prada, MD, from Istituto Neurologico C. Besta, presented “Cerebral Ultrasound Imaging and Therapy.”
When asked about the meeting overall, Dr. Prada, who is also a member of ISTU’s Board of Directors, commented: “ISTU covered many topics this year. I was very pleased as a neurosurgeon to see such an emphasis on the brain and specifically brain tumor treatments such as blood-brain barrier and sonodynamic therapy. Also, neuromodulation was highly represented, including in the brain session and a dedicated session on the topic. There were also many histotripsy presentations, both preclinical and clinical, and Joan Vidal-Jové presented great clinical results on pancreatic cancer.”
Annual Debate
For the always-favorite ISTU annual debate, the question was “Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation: Fake or Real?” Elsa Fouragnan, PhD, from the Brain Research Imaging Center at the University of Plymouth, UK, provided the fake argument while Kullervo Hynynen, PhD, from Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto argued that it was real.
Abstract Presentations
ISTU 2025 featured 21 late-breaking posters, 142 regular posters, and 89 oral talks.
Go to the ISTU 2025 Meeting Site
Download the ISTU 2025 Program Book (PDF)
Search the Detailed Meeting Program
Next Meeting
ISTU 2026 will be held June 15–18 in Trondheim, Norway.