Key Points
- KSTU’s 10th anniversary symposium was held November 22–23 at the K Hotel in Seoul.
- Two full days of sessions included educational presentations, posters, and plenary talks.
KSTU celebrated its 10th anniversary symposium in 2024 with two full days of sessions. The conference was held November 22–23 at the K Hotel in Seoul. About 200 registered participants were in attendance, along with 27 sponsors, including the Foundation. All sessions were well organized and covered topics ranging from basic science to clinical applications. There were many neurologists, neurosurgeons, radiologists, obstetrics and gynecologists, as well as basic scientists and engineers from various universities and research institutes in attendance, and company representatives from almost every region in Korea were also there.
“Personally, I am proud of the KSTU symposium this year. It was an outstanding example of a well-mixed group of medical doctors and engineers in therapeutic ultrasound. We learned a lot from the sessions and discussion,” said Dong-Guk Paeng, PhD, the Foundation’s focused ultrasound ambassador in Asian. “KSTU has grown significantly over the past two years under the leadership of its current president, Dr. Jae Young Lee.”
Day 1
The six sessions on the first day are each described below. The Focused Ultrasound Foundation sponsored the international session. The day concluded with a general assembly and gala dinner.
1. Education Session
Dr. Eun-Joo Park opened the session with an overview of animal experiment techniques for therapeutic ultrasound research. The presentation was very helpful for early career researchers conducting animal experiments. Dr. Young-Sun Kim at MINT Intervention hospital provided overviewed of clinical outcomes in body applications of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy. Dr. Eun Jung Lee gave a talk about current advances and future prospects in transcranial neurological focused ultrasound treatment, including thermal effects, blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening, and neuromodulation.
2. Plenary Lecture I
In his plenary lecture, KSTU President Dr. Jae Young Lee shared his personal research journey, describing his experiences starting focused ultrasound research in 2007 in the laboratory and continuing to his current Phase III pancreatic cancer clinical trial.
3. Drug Delivery & Carriers for Therapeutic Ultrasound
The three topics in this session included exosome-fused microbubble and exosome membrane protein-embedded nanoparticles as drug carriers for therapeutic efficacy, extracellular vesicles for sonodynamic cancer therapy, and ultrasound-based monitoring for focused ultrasound BBB opening by Hyuncheol Kim, Min Suk Shim, and Sua Bae, respectively.
4. Meet the Authors
In this new session, three awardees were highlighted for publishing their research in high-impact journals. The articles were on sonothrombolysis with boiling histotripsy in Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, long-lasting restoration of memory function and synaptic plasticity by focused ultrasound in Alzheimer’s disease in Brain Stimulation, and endogenous neural stem cell activation after low-intensity focused ultrasound–induced BBB modulation in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
5. International Session (Sponsored by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation)
Prof. Jaw-Lin Wang from National Taiwan University presented the molecular determinants sensing mechanism of LIFU from tool development to clinical implications – including pitfalls. Dr. Shu-Mei Yang from National Taiwan University Hospital presented targeted brain delivery of curcumin-loaded nanoparticles using focused ultrasound in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Yumi Matsushita from Japan presented TRPC6 molecule for ultrasound-induced neuromodulation in the mammalian brain. Ms. Kaede Yoshida, a master’s student from Japan, presented on sonogenetic brain stimulation technology.
6. Poster Session I
There were 14 posters presented during a coffee break.
7. Physics and Biological Responses by Therapeutic Ultrasound I
Four invited talks included acoustic tweezers for biomedical applications, ultrasound neuromodulation via astrocytic TRPA1, molecular rational design strategies for photo/sono-dynamic therapy, and devices for therapeutic ultrasound.
Day 2
The seven sessions on the second day are each described below. These sessions were followed by awards and a closing ceremony.
1. Education Session II
Topics in this session included interesting and practical information about large language model (LLM) and generative AI principles and applications in hospitals, a practical guide to ChatGPT and generative AI for scholarly work, and intelligent ultrasound systems for better diagnostics and treatment.
2. Plenary Lecture II
Prof. Zhen Xu gave a great plenary lecture about the road to histotripsy cancer treatment from bench to bedside, which was followed by many questions for discussion. She almost lost her voice, as after the session, there was a queue to meet her for questions and advice during the coffee break with a poster session II.
3. Neurological Applications of Therapeutic Ultrasound
The presentations in this session included acoustic neuromodulation via molecular profiling to elucidate cell type–specific neural dynamics, long-term plasticity through ultrasound for noninvasive brain stimulation, and clinical experiences using an ExAblate Neuro system for neurological treatments of essential tremor.
4. Poster Session II
5. Scientific Session I & II
Session I featured four 12 minute-talks. After a lunch break, Session II included five 12 minute-talks.
6. Physics and Biological Responses by Therapeutic Ultrasound II
This session included four invited talks.
Prof. Yongrae Roh from Kyoungpook National University was endorsed as the new president of KSTU for two years from the following year of 2025.