Washington University in St. Louis named Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence
Hong Chen, Jan Kubanek named director and co-director of the new center, respectively
Washington University in St. Louis has been named Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, in research and applications of focused ultrasound, bringing the university into a global cohort committed to advancing focused ultrasound technology for the benefit of patients.
Through an internationally recognized academic medical center with leadership strengths in biomedical engineering, neuroscience and translational medicine, WashU has built a robust interdisciplinary network of researchers and clinicians working in focused ultrasound.
Under the leadership of Hong Chen, professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and of neurosurgery at WashU Medicine, and Jan Kubanek, associate professor of psychiatry in the Division of Clinical Neuroscience and Behavioral Health at WashU Medicine, director and co-director of the new Center, respectively, more than 30 faculty members across 11 departments contribute to focused ultrasound research.
Representative contributors include Eric Leuthardt, the Shi H. Huang Professor of Neurological Surgery in the Taylor Family Department of Neurosurgery and professor of neuroscience, of biomedical engineering and of mechanical engineering & materials science; Arash Nazeri, MD, assistant professor of radiology, and Joel Culver, the Sherwood Moore Professor of Radiology and director of the Imaging Sciences Pathway and of the Biophotonics Research Center, both in the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; Alexxai Kravitz, associate professor of psychiatry; Buck Rogers, professor of radiation oncology; Larry Snyder, MD, PhD, professor of neuroscience; Jonathan Brestoff, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology & immunology; Jin-Moo Lee, MD, PhD, Andrew B. & Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology; Jianmin Cui and Dan Moran, both professors of biomedical engineering, and Philip V. Bayly, the Lee Hunter Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, among many others, who contribute to the center’s interdisciplinary strength.
To date, researchers have secured more than $40 million in external funding, produced over 100 papers and launched five clinical trials exploring focused ultrasound for patients with brain tumors, chronic pain, PTSD, depression and fibromyalgia. The group also holds 27 granted and pending patent applications, and translation to industry is already underway.
“This designation reflects the power of collaboration at WashU,” Chen said. “Our excellence in focused ultrasound is made possible by the university’s remarkably interdisciplinary environment, the strong support of our leadership, and the dedication of colleagues across engineering, medicine and science. I am especially proud of our trainees, whose curiosity, hard work and innovative thinking drive so much of our progress. Together, we are positioned to accelerate new scientific discoveries and translate them into meaningful impact for patients.”
“WashU faculty are not afraid to tackle some of the hardest problems facing mankind, and we do so in collaborative spirit unmatched elsewhere,” Kubanek added. “The Focused Ultrasound Foundation is recognizing our productive crosstalk of ultrasound physics, neuroscience, neurosurgery, and engineering at WashU. We will bring excellence to every aspect of the endeavor, including vision, research, device translation, and teaching and training of the next generation of researchers. By doing so, we will begin changing the way we treat cancer and intractable psychiatric and neurological disorders.”
Kubanek said center leaders are already conducting randomized sham-controlled clinical studies across multiple sites in the United States, and within this center, will scale this endeavor, bringing the emerging technologies based on focused ultrasound through FDA approval and to patients.
“We will engage people with lived experience to fit the therapies to address the patients’ specific needs; organize workshops to bring the brightest minds to WashU and expand the collaborative network nationwide and globally; raise awareness about this noninvasive targeted technology in the media, publications and conferences; and get trainees and researchers excited about the technology and its nearly limitless applications,” Kubanek continued.
WashU has also made a concerted effort to cultivate the next generation of focused ultrasound leaders. Chen and Kubanek actively mentor graduate students, and four former trainees have gone on to become faculty members and principal investigators in focused ultrasound research. Chen and Kubanek have also taught focused ultrasound to undergraduate and graduate students.
“With demonstrated expertise in basic science, engineering innovation, clinical application and commercialization, Washington University in St. Louis is a leading voice in the acceleration of focused ultrasound,” said Neal F. Kassell, MD, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “The Center of Excellence designation recognizes their immense achievements and continuing contributions toward developing focused ultrasound for the benefit of patients.”
About Focused Ultrasound
Focused ultrasound uses ultrasound energy guided by real-time imaging to treat tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation. It is FDA-approved in the United States to treat essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease, liver tumors, uterine fibroids, pain from bone metastases, osteoid osteoma, the prostate and chronic low back pain. Dozens of additional indications are approved outside of the US. The technology is in various stages of research and development for more than 180 diseases. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis conduct multi-site clinical trials to obtain FDA approval for some of these diseases.
![Rohit V. Pappu, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Min Kyung Shinn, a former postdoctoral researcher in his lab, investigated some of the physical features of nuclear speckles that were inconsistent with the type of uniform droplets one expected to see if they formed via liquid-liquid phase separation. Their microscopy images revealed that the speckle-associated proteins were distinct in the types of structures they formed. [Credit: Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 4, 605–612 (2003).]](../images/rohit-image.jpg)
