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Charlottesville, VA—The Focused Ultrasound Foundation has designated Virginia Tech as a Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence. Virginia Tech is the sixth Center of Excellence in the US and the twelfth worldwide. Established in 2009, the Foundation’s Center of Excellence Program recognizes luminary sites for their merit in translational and clinical research in focused ultrasound, training, and patient care. The Centers serve as hubs for collaboration, bringing together academia, industry, and the Foundation to champion therapeutic ultrasound technology in innovative ways. “Virginia Tech possesses significant strengths in the focused ultrasound field, and it is an honor to recognize them as a Center of Excellence,” said Neal F. Kassell, MD, Founder and Chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “With distinguished experts across the colleges of engineering, science, veterinary medicine, and medicine, the university’s premier biomedical research institute, and a notable history of significant publications in leading journals, Virginia Tech is driving the future of focused ultrasound into exciting new territory.” Virginia Tech’s focused ultrasound program spans departments, disciplines, and geography (Roanoke, Blacksburg, and Washington DC) with the potential to impact human and animal lives in areas of critical unmet need such as neurological disorders and hard-to-treat cancers. Key institutions and departments involved in focused ultrasound research and treatment include the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion (VTC), the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine’s Animal Cancer Care and Research Center, the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics in the College of Engineering, the Department of Internal Medicine in the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and a collaboration with Children’s National Hospital’s Brain Tumor Institute and its Center for Cancer and Immunology Research. Additionally, Virginia Tech’s strength in technology commercialization is demonstrated by more than 10 ongoing industry collaborations as well as multiple biotechnology spinoff companies from the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. “This selection by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation will have an important impact on the university’s growing health sciences research enterprise,” said Michael Friedlander, PhD, Virginia Tech vice president for Health Sciences and Technology and executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. “The center of excellence designation will further enable researchers across Virginia Tech to focus on applications of focused ultrasound in the treatment of brain and behavioral disorders such as addiction and substance abuse, chronic pain, neurodegenerative diseases, and for human and animal cancer research.” Virginia Tech is unique in its ability to perform research across the translational spectrum from pet patients to humans through the One Health approach to research, which recognizes the dynamic interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health, and the collection of veterinary data to advance human medicine. The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center promote interdisciplinary collaborations among medical, veterinary, public health, and other professionals to advance groundbreaking and lifesaving research. This emphasis on understanding and treating diseases that affect both veterinary and human patients puts Virginia Tech in an exceptional position to rapidly discover and implement new focused ultrasound treatments that could save lives. “Tumors in dogs and cats are very similar to tumors that occur in people,” said Joanne Tuohy, DVM, PhD, assistant professor of surgical oncology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. “We are very much like our pets in so many ways. We share our home environments, and we have the same exposures that can potentially be associated with cancer development, which is very different than a controlled environment in a laboratory. As we provide health care, the companion animals are a clinically relevant model to inform us as we develop focused ultrasound devices. By helping our pets, we can also help people at the same time.” This designation also represents a stronger partnership between Virginia Tech and the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “The Foundation funded my first research grant as a faculty member, helped us to establish our growing focused ultrasound veterinary program, and has been a key partner in numerous other important initiatives for our histotripsy research program during my first six years at Virginia Tech, said Eli Vlaisavljevich, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech. “By working together in a more coordinated fashion, we will have even more success in establishing a world-leading focused ultrasound program with essential core facilities that enable impact on a global scale through our mission of advancing focused ultrasound research, development, and clinical adoption.” With the current and future financial support of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, funding agencies, and donors, the new Center of Excellence will draw on the expertise of over 35 principal investigators devoted to focused ultrasound research and work in collaboration with industrial partners and other Centers of Excellence around the world to expand the range of novel ultrasound therapies for the benefit of patients. “Individually, we can’t advance quickly enough for patients facing cancer or ailments where focused ultrasound can really make a difference,” said Jennifer Munson, PhD, a biomedical engineer who works to find new ways to treat brain tumors in children. “But together, we are transforming our approach to treating these tumors and fast-tracking their delivery to patients in need.” To learn more about the Foundation’s Center of Excellence program, please visit our website. About Focused UltrasoundFocused ultrasound uses ultrasound energy guided by real-time imaging to treat tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation. There are currently 34 indications in various stages of development in the UK and more than 170 worldwide, including Alzheimer’s disease and tumors of the brain, liver, breast, and pancreas. Worldwide, 32 have regulatory approval, and in the UK, 13 have achieved CE marking. About the Focused Ultrasound FoundationBased in Charlottesville, VA, the Focused Ultrasound Foundation was created to improve the lives of millions of people worldwide by accelerating the development of focused ultrasound, a rapidly evolving, noninvasive technology. The Foundation works to clear the path to global adoption in the shortest time possible by organizing and funding research, fostering collaboration, and building awareness among patients and professionals. Since its establishment in 2006, the Foundation has ...

In this opinion piece by Dr. Suzanne LeBlang, Director of Clinical Relations at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, she highlights the barriers that still exist for women to access noninvasive FUS treatment for fibroids and the lack of investment in women’s health research.

Charlottesville, VA, May 21, 2024 — The Focused Ultrasound Foundation and ALS Association are proud to announce their joint collaboration to fund a groundbreaking new research project exploring the role of focused ultrasound in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) treatment. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, this neurodegenerative disease leads to a loss of communication between the brain and muscles, causing progressive paralysis. The typical life expectancy for those diagnosed with ALS is two to five years. With more than 30,000 Americans affected by ALS and no known cure, new treatment approaches are urgently needed. Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive therapeutic technology with the potential to transform the treatment of many medical disorders by using ultrasonic energy to target tissue deep in the body without the need for incisions or radiation. It is approved for nine indications in the U.S.—and more than 30 worldwide—and is in various stages of research and development for the treatment of nearly 180 serious diseases and conditions, including ALS. The study, led by Agessandro Abrahao, M.D., M.Sc., assistant professor of neurology at the University of Toronto and an associate scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute, will investigate whether focused ultrasound can help open the blood–brain barrier to allow a potential new treatment recently identified by University of Toronto researchers more easily reach motor neurons in the brain. The new molecule, called JRMS-22, may help clear the toxic clumps of a protein called TDP-43 that are found in the neurons of most people living with ALS and potentially prevent them from forming in the first place. “Focused ultrasound is a versatile technology with several mechanisms of action, including drug delivery and gene therapy, which hold the promise of monitoring progression, alleviating ALS symptoms, and even halting the progression of the disease,” said Emily White, M.D., managing director of operations and FUS partners at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “Advancing research on neurodegenerative conditions like ALS is pivotal to the Foundation, and we arepleased to partner with the ALS Association on this important project. We are also grateful to have the support of donors passionate about neurodegenerative research, including the Eddie and Jo Allison Smith Family Foundation and the Red Gates Foundation; their commitment fuels our ability to pursue such promising treatments and make a meaningful difference in the lives of those battling ALS.” The funded study is supported in part by a $500,000 ALS Association Partnership Grant awarded to the Foundation in 2023. “We urgently need more and better treatments that can improve and extend the lives of people with ALS,” said Kuldip Dave, Ph.D., senior vice president of research at the ALS Association. “We are proud to partner with the Focused Ultrasound Foundation to support this innovative research project and learn more about how this novel technology could be used to help make ALS a livable disease.” The Foundation has a long history of supporting research on neurodegenerative diseases, including a landmark study at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. This 2019 study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrated the safety and potential of focused ultrasound to temporarily open the blood–brain barrier in people living with ALS. This collaborative effort underscores the importance of innovative, noninvasive approaches in treating challenging neurodegenerative diseases, offering renewed hope for those living with ALS and their families. ### About the Focused Ultrasound FoundationThe Focused Ultrasound Foundation was created in 2006 to improve the lives of millions of people worldwide in the shortest time possible by accelerating the development of noninvasive focused ultrasound technology. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Foundation is a tax-exempt, high-performance, entrepreneurial service organization working to clear the path to global adoption of focused ultrasound by organizing and funding research, fostering collaboration, and building awareness among patients and professionals. The Foundation was recognized in 2018 as one of “America’s 10 Best Medical Research Organizations” by Charity Navigator, and is the largest nongovernmental source of funding for focused ultrasound research. About the ALS AssociationThe ALS Association is the largest philanthropic funder of ALS research in the world. The Association funds global research collaborations, assists people with ALS and their families through its nationwide network of care and certified clinical care centers, and advocates for better public policies for people with ALS. The ALS Association is working to make ALS a livable disease while urgently searching for new treatments and a cure. For more information about The ALS Association, visit our website at als.org.

Dr. Neal Kassell, founder and chairman of the Foundation, shares about the revolutionary role focused ultrasound can have in cancer treatment