Research Awards Update: Five Preclinical Projects Initiated in the Third Quarter of 2022

Published:

Key Points

  • The Foundation’s Research Awards Program initiated five preclinical studies from July through September 2022, the third quarter of the year.
  • The funded projects address immunotherapy, cardiovascular, and brain applications of focused ultrasound.
  • Researchers will study immunotherapy for osteosarcoma, blood-brain barrier opening, and brain metastases from breast cancer. Others are working on deep vein thrombosis and transcranial histotripsy.

The Foundation’s Research Awards Program initiated five new preclinical studies from July through September 2022, the third quarter of the year. The funded projects address immunotherapy, cardiovascular, and brain applications of focused ultrasound. Researchers will study immunotherapy for osteosarcoma, blood-brain barrier opening, and brain metastases from breast cancer. Others are working on deep vein thrombosis and transcranial histotripsy.

Each newly initiated project is listed below.

Immunotherapy

Investigating the Immunotherapeutic Effects of Histotripsy Ablation in Osteosarcoma led by Alayna Hay, PhD, at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
This project is using in vivo and in vitro models of osteosarcoma to investigate whether histotripsy ablation can modulate both local and systemic immunity, stimulate an anti-tumor immune response, and mitigate metastatic disease.

Improving of Bioeffects During Focused Ultrasound Microbubble Treatments led by Alexander Klibanov, PhD, at the University of Virginia Focused Ultrasound Immunotherapy Center
This project seeks to optimize microbubble characteristics to improve safety and efficacy for blood-brain barrier opening when delivering immunotherapeutics. The size of the microbubbles is of particular interest.

Closed-Loop MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound—Controlled Activation of CAR T Cells in Brain Tumors led by Costas Arvanitis, PhD, at the Georgia Institute of Technology
This project will use focused ultrasound hyperthermia to control intratumoral production of T-cell engagers and create potential anti-tumor responses in breast-cancer primary brain metastases.

Cardiovascular

Venous Recanalization by Ultrasound Cavitation of Chronic Venous Thrombosis in a Swine Model led by Mathieu Pernot, PhD, at LabTAU
This project will investigate whether focused ultrasound histotripsy can be used for clot lysis to improve recanalization after deep vein thrombosis.

Brain Technical

The All-in-One Rodent Ultrasound Therapy System led by Zhen Xu, PhD, at the University of Michigan
For this project, researchers will build an “everything-but-thermal-ablation” focused ultrasound system for small animal research. This transcranial ultrasound therapy system features a single transducer and electric driver that can deliver several modalities across a variety of ultrasound parameters.

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