Join us on Tuesday, June 9, from 11 am to 12 pm Eastern for a fascinating look at the history and evolution of focused ultrasound therapy with Gail ter Haar, DSc, and David Cranston, DPhil, FRCS.

This webinar will explore the early rationale for developing noninvasive therapeutic ultrasound, the first bioeffects and therapeutic indications explored, and the clinical challenges that drove the search for alternatives to surgery and other invasive treatments.

Speakers will discuss early successes and setbacks, key scientific discoveries, and the clinical needs that helped shape focused ultrasound into the transformative technology it is today.

Register Now

Established as a program of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, IFUS aggregates and expands the Foundation’s activities related to clinical implementation and will leverage the Foundation’s established brand, infrastructure, and human and financial resources. 

Core activities of IFUS will include:

• Education of clinicians, allied healthcare providers, and the public around the use of focused ultrasound across indications
• Meetings and workshops
• Patient support and advocacy (public policy, regulatory, and reimbursement)
• Coding, billing, and insurance
• Clinical guidelines, best practices, and standards of care
• Training, credentialing, and certification
• Society and industry partnerships
• Public relations and communications

“Focused ultrasound has reached a tipping point in clinical adoption, and its role as a game-changing element in the therapeutic armamentarium is now being recognized,” said Neal F. Kassell, MD, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “IFUS will help bring this technology into mainstream medicine worldwide by formalizing the clinical, educational, and organizational framework needed for widespread adoption.” 

Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive technology that uses high-frequency sound waves, guided by real-time imaging, to treat tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation. It can exert its effect through multiple mechanisms of action, including destroying tissue, delivering drugs more safely and effectively, and enhancing cancer immunotherapy.   

The technology has emerged as one of the most significant medical advances of the 21st century, with more than 1 million patients treated, over 180 indications in various stages of development, and 35 regulatory authorizations worldwide, including 12 by the US Food and Drug Administration. Focused ultrasound is now on a trajectory to treat more than 1 million patients per year.  

Nir Lipsman, MD, PhD, neurosurgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and chair of the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, will serve as inaugural IFUS board chair.  

“As the use of focused ultrasound accelerates globally, IFUS will serve as its clinical home, advancing clinical applications, supporting implementation, and increasing awareness,” said Lipsman. “By connecting physicians across disciplines and regions, the organization will help define the standards, evidence base, and systems needed to make focused ultrasound more accessible to patients worldwide.” 

The IFUS founding board members include leading clinicians and researchers representing a wide range of geographies and specialties:

• Jin Woo Chang, MD, PhD
  Korea University Anam Hospital
• Sébastien Crouzet, MD, PhD
  Hospices Civils de Lyon & Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1
• Wladyslaw Gedroyc, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR
  Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Catherine Gilmore-Lawless, MBA
  Former Executive, Elekta and GE Healthcare
• Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD
  Stanford University School of Medicine
• Kullervo Hynynen, PhD
  Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Zhang Lian, MD
  Chongqing Haifu Hospital
• Nir Lipsman, MD, PhD
  Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Suzanne LeBlang, MD
  Focused Ultrasound Foundation
• Clare M. Tempany, MD
  Harvard Medical School & Brigham and Women’s Hospital
• Joan Vidal-Jove, MD, PhD
  Comprehensive Tumour Center, Barcelona
• Zhen Xu, PhD
  University of Michigan

IFUS is focused on clinical activities and will complement organizations such as the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU), which emphasizes basic research and technology development. 

Membership will include clinicians, researchers, and trainees, and all individuals involved in focused ultrasound are encouraged to sign up to connect, exchange ideas, and promote and advance this life-changing technology. Founding membership is offered at no cost for the first year. To learn more, see our frequently asked questions. For additional information, contact Paige Rice, IFUS executive director, at price@fusfoundation.org.   

About the Focused Ultrasound Foundation  
Based 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 clinicians. Positioned at the nexus of the focused ultrasound ecosystem, the Foundation is the catalyst and driving force for development and adoption of the technology, and the largest non-governmental funding source for focused ultrasound research. 

• Stanford researchers developed a noninvasive method of using focused ultrasound to generate light deep inside the body. 
• The process enables precise control of biological processes through light-based interventions. 

The research team at Stanford University led by Guosong Hong, PhD, recently published comprehensive study results in Nature Materials, a high-impact journal. Throughout this project, they created a groundbreaking technique that uses focused ultrasound to generate light deep inside the body, without surgery or implanted devices. Their innovative approach opens the door to highly precise, noninvasive control of biological processes through light-based interventions. Examples of these types of processes are gene editing, photodynamic therapy, deep-tissue imaging, and drug delivery.

Early joint funding provided by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation together with the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation helped establish the feasibility of the approach, which led to additional funding (e.g., an NIH BRAIN Initiative R01 grant) and the final development of the comprehensive technique. 

An Ultrasound-Scanning In Vivo Light Source 

The goal of the research was to overcome a longstanding challenge: how to deliver light to specific locations inside the body with both high precision and flexibility. Light is widely used in biology and medicine research, for example to activate genes or control neurons, but typically requires invasive optical fibers or is limited to shallow tissues. 

To address the challenge, the team engineered tiny mechanoluminescent nanoparticles that circulate through the bloodstream. When stimulated by focused ultrasound, the particles emitted light exactly where the ultrasound was directed. By scanning the ultrasound beam, researchers could “paint” light patterns deep inside tissues in real time. 

The results are striking. In animal studies, the system achieved sub-millimeter precision and was able to target multiple regions throughout the brain and body. To demonstrate its potential for controlling biological activity, the researchers used a technique known as optogenetics, where cells are genetically engineered to respond to light. Using this approach, they were able to activate light-sensitive neurons in the brain and spinal cord, and in turn influence behavior, all without surgery. In other organs, the study demonstrated precise, targeted light delivery, highlighting the potential for future applications beyond the nervous system. 

“My lab is currently working with Michael Lin’s lab to pair this light-producing method with a gene-editing system,” said Dr. Hong. “We envision using ultrasound to achieve spatiotemporally precise gene editing as a noninvasive therapeutic strategy for spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron 1 gene (SMN1).” [Read more about this next project at “Interdisciplinary Initiatives Program Seed Grant: Ultrasound-Controlled in vivo Gene Editing via Photoswitchable CRISPR-Cas9.”] 

This breakthrough builds directly on work supported by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. Initial funding enabled the team to demonstrate that ultrasound could trigger light emission inside living animals and achieve localized activation with high spatial precision. These foundational studies also showed that the emitted light was strong and fast enough to drive biological effects such as gene activation. 

“These are exciting results demonstrating how focused ultrasound can act as a noninvasive ‘switch’ to control gene and cell therapies with light, particularly for neurological disorders where precise, localized activation is critical,” said Frédéric Padilla, PhD, director of the Foundation’s Gene and Cell Therapy Program. 

Together, the body of work described in the publication represents a major step toward noninvasive, targeted therapies. By enabling precise control of where and when biological processes occur, ultrasound-mediated light delivery could one day support treatments for neurological disorders, genetic diseases, and beyond. 

See Nature Materials 

See the Stanford Report: Researchers Use Ultrasound to Create Light Inside the Body

See Coverage in Physics World 

Related Stories 
Focused Ultrasound for Gene and Cell Therapy 2023 Workshop Participants 

Research Awards Update: Eight Preclinical Projects Initiated in the Second Quarter of 2022 

• Researchers are now enrolling participants in a clinical trial using focused ultrasound to treat certain types of pancreatic cancer. 
• The study at Stanford University is testing the Sonire Therapeutics system in patients with unresectable tumors.

The first participant has been enrolled in a clinical trial to test Sonire Therapeutics’ ultrasound-guided focused ultrasound system for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. 

The research study, called SUNRISE-II (NCT07033689), is assessing the safety and feasibility of using Sonire’s high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) system to deliver localized thermal ablation to primary pancreatic tumors that cannot be surgically removed (or “resected” in surgical terms). The purpose of the focused ultrasound is to thermally ablate the tumor. 

A total of 10 participants will be enrolled at Stanford University by principal investigator Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD, a radiologist who directs Stanford Medicine’s Minimally Invasive MR Interventional Center and the Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence. 

In the clinical trial, participants will undergo focused ultrasound treatment before the initiation of a standard first-line chemotherapy. The chemotherapy regimen will begin within two weeks after the focused ultrasound is applied. Participants return for follow-up visits one month and three months after treatment begins. 

Unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma varies in stage and extent. Even if it is confined to the pancreas and nearby structures, if it has reached the surrounding blood vessels, it is considered locally advanced and inoperable. If safety is confirmed, this approach could be tested in larger clinical trials in the future. 

“Treatment options for pancreatic cancer remain extremely limited due to the complexity and location of the disease,” said Tohru Satoh, President and CEO of Sonire Therapeutics in the company’s press release. “Initiating SUNRISE-II in the United States is a defining milestone for our company. It enables us to begin building clinical evidence in a new market while advancing a treatment approach designed to be less invasive and more accessible for patients.” 

In 2023, Sonire launched a similar clinical trial in Japan, and the results of that study are being closely watched. Sonire’s HIFU platform has also received Breakthrough Device Designation from the United States Food and Drug Administration. 

This clinical study is being funded by Sonire Therapeutics. 

For Patients 
To learn more, visit the clinical trial page or contact Mikayla Easterling at Stanford Medicine via telephone (650) 724-3698 or email: maeast@stanford.edu. 

Read the Sonire Press Release 

Related Stories 
FDA Grants Breakthrough Device Designation for Pancreatic Cancer Treatment November 2024 

SONIRE Therapeutics Begins Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trial February 2023 

Company Profile: SONIRE Therapeutics February 2023 

Targeted drug delivery to the brain has long been hindered by the blood-brain barrier, a protective layer that prevents many therapeutic agents from reaching their intended targets. For patients with serious neurological disorders, this challenge can significantly reduce access to potentially effective treatments and limit therapeutic outcomes. 

In this episode of Curing with Sound, we speak with Sasha Klibanov, PhD, Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Virginia and a pioneering researcher in microbubble technology. Dr. Klibanov discusses the evolution of microbubbles from imaging contrast agents to sophisticated tools for drug delivery. He also explains how focused ultrasound, combined with microbubbles, can safely and temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, creating new opportunities for precision therapies and advancing the potential of immunotherapy. 

Discussion highlights:

• Microbubble Technology Explained: Explore how microbubbles evolved from diagnostic imaging tools into powerful agents for precise drug delivery when combined with focused ultrasound.
  
• Advancing Immunotherapy: Learn about Dr. Klibanov’s collaborative research on using size-sorted microbubbles to optimize the opening of the blood-brain barrier, potentially revolutionizing how we treat complex diseases by enabling targeted immune responses.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

—————————-

QUESTIONS?
Email podcast@fusfoundation.org if you have a question or comment about the show, or if you would you like to connect about future guest appearances. 

Email info@fusfoundation.org if you have questions about focused ultrasound or the Foundation. 

• Anchored by a generous $1.5 million gift, we are pleased to announce the launch of our veterinary medicine fundraising campaign. 
• The newly named Claudine and Fritz Kundrun Veterinary Program is now seeking an additional $3 million to help fund innovative clinical trials in companion animals. 

We are pleased to announce a new fundraising campaign in veterinary medicine, anchored by a generous $1.5 million gift from Claudine and Fritz Kundrun. The Claudine and Fritz Kundrun Veterinary Program is now seeking an additional $3 million to help fund innovative clinical trials in companion animals.

The Veterinary Program was created to advance focused ultrasound technology to benefit both companion animals and their owners. While veterinary medicine has historically lagged behind human medicine, that gap is beginning to close as we better understand the value of studying and treating naturally occurring diseases in dogs, cats, and horses. 

“Our pets share many of the same environments as we do and are exposed to similar risk factors,” explains the Foundation’s Veterinary Program Director Tonya Cherukuri, PhD. “As a result, they develop many of the same diseases, often in ways that more closely reflect human conditions than those seen in laboratory models. Veterinary trials make new, innovative therapies available for family pets, while simultaneously contributing data that can be used to advance human medicine, creating a virtuous cycle where humans help animals help humans.” 

To date, the program has funded nearly 30 clinical trials for 13 different conditions, including osteosarcoma, lymphoma, heart disease, diabetes, and tumors in the liver, bladder, brain, and mouth. This research is being carried out at 11 institutions, including Virginia Tech, Purdue University, and University of Texas Southwestern. 

However, there are more clinical trials in the pipeline that will require an investment of $5 million over the next 3 to 5 years. Thanks to the Kundruns’ gift and co-funding commitments from other organizations, we have raised just under $2 million. Thus, a funding gap of approximately $3 million exists. 

“We are deeply grateful to Claudine and Fritz for their extraordinary gift, which underscores the power of philanthropy to advance the One Medicine approach—recognizing the vital connection between animal and human health,” said Foundation Chairman Neal F. Kassell, MD. “Their leadership sets a strong foundation for innovation and collaboration that will benefit patients across species. We invite others who share this vision to join us in building momentum for this critical work.” 

Learn More and How to Give 
To learn more about this campaign, read patient stories, and donate, visit our website.

• Register as a player or spectator! All skill levels are welcome and have a place in the tournament. 
• The Be Still Foundation was founded by Bobby Krause, a patient whose Parkinson’s disease symptoms were successfully treated with focused ultrasound. 

The Be Still Foundation launched its inaugural “Triumph Over Tremors” Pickleball Tournament series in Philadelphia on April 11, 2026, Global Parkinson’s Day (See CBS News Coverage). The series is successfully bringing communities together to support people living with essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. It aims to raise awareness, provide education, and help patients access advanced therapies, all while enjoying the game of pickleball.

• The second tournament in the series will take place on May 16 in Los Angeles, CA, with proceeds benefiting patients of UCLA HEALTH and other treatment centers across California. You may have recently seen the inspiring Today Show featuring Rebecca Crews’ Parkinson’s journey, including her focused ultrasound treatment at Stanford Medicine Health Care. 

• The final stop in the “Triumph Over Tremors” tournament series will take place May 30 in Grand Rapids, MI, to benefiting patients of Corewell Health. 

“Triumph Over Tremors is more than a pickleball tournament,” said Bobby Krause, Be Still Foundation’s president and founder. “It’s about giving people their lives back – the ability to write again, to eat without a struggle, to hold their grandchildren without shaking. It’s about hope.” 

Proceeds from the tournament support patient assistance programs and community outreach efforts aimed at helping people better understand and navigate treatment options for tremor disorders. Players, families, clinicians, and community supporters come together not only to compete but to stand in solidarity with those living with neurological movement disorders. 

“It was one of the most memorable moments of my career to play in the Philadelphia Triumph Over Tremors event,” said Suzanne LeBlang, MD, the Foundation’s director of clinical relationships. “There was such a positive vibe as family, friends, the medical team at UPENN, industry, and community supporters all came together to support patients and their desire to find and receive treatment. I highly recommend registering for Los Angeles and Grand Rapids!”

Be Still Foundation was born from personal experience. After receiving a Parkinson’s diagnosis and facing debilitating tremors, founder Bobby Krause discovered MR-guided focused ultrasound, an incisionless treatment developed by Insightec. The procedure treated his tremors and restored his quality of life. What began as one person’s search for relief has grown into a movement helping others regain control of their tremor, offering renewed hope to patients and families across the country since its founding in 2025. 

See the Tournament Website

• Dogs with lymphoma and osteosarcoma are now being enrolled in clinicals trials at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. 
• The research studies are part of the Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center’s innovative tumor ablation program.

The first patients have been treated in two clinical trials that are using focused ultrasound to treat common malignant tumors in dogs. The research studies, for osteosarcoma and lymphoma, are taking place at Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center as part of a new tumor ablation program. 

Both of these prospective clinical trials are using the Theraclion EchoPulse system. The focused ultrasound for veterinary applications initiative at Purdue is being led by Nick Dervisis, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Oncology), Michael Childress, DVM, MS, DACVIM, and Shawna Klahn, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology). Dr. Dervisis also serves as the Foundation’s senior advisor for veterinary initiatives.

Osteosarcoma Clinical Trial 
The osteosarcoma trial is evaluating the safety, feasibility, and biological effects of using focused ultrasound to treat dogs with newly diagnosed appendicular osteosarcoma. This aggressive cancer often affects the longer leg bones in large dogs. After applying focused ultrasound to the tumor site, researchers will assess changes in the tumor microenvironment and immune response to inform future combination approaches with immune-based therapies. 

Participants first undergo pre-treatment functional imaging to plan the procedure. Researchers will then partially ablate the tumor using focused ultrasound under anesthesia. Follow-up scans will be completed after approximately a week, immediately before standard-of-care amputation of the limb. After recovery, the dogs will begin adjuvant chemotherapy.

Eligible dogs must be at least one year old and weigh more than 18 pounds. The University is covering the cost of the focused ultrasound treatment, up to $2,600 toward surgical amputation, and follow-up visits. 

Lymphoma Clinical Trial 
The second clinical trial is for the treatment of lymphoma, one of the most common cancers in dogs. The goal of this research is to safely destroy part of a cancerous lymph node and stimulate the immune system to help fight the cancer throughout the body. 

Before treatment, the team will take a needle biopsy of an unaffected lymph node to set a baseline. Participants will then undergo a single focused ultrasound lymph node treatment. Approximately one week later, the team will compare the treated lymph node with an untreated node and also assess blood samples for immune changes. All dogs will then receive a full 25-week course of standard chemotherapy using the “CHOP protocol” – a regimen of chemotherapeutics including cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine (Oncovin), and prednisolone – for patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

Eligible dogs must be at least one year old, weigh more than 18 pounds, and have a confirmed diagnosis of intermediate or large-cell, multicentric lymphoma (B- or T-cell). 

Purdue will cover the cost of the focused ultrasound procedure plus all biopsies and blood tests as outlined in the trial protocol. Additionally, owners will receive a $2,000 credit toward the cost of the CHOP chemotherapy protocol and up to $2,000 in additional support for managing any side effects linked to focused ultrasound or to be applied toward CHOP therapy. 

“Treating these first patients represents a defining milestone for our program,” said Dr. Dervisis. “It reflects years of collaboration and preparation to bring advanced ablation technologies into a clinically embedded, translational research environment. I am proud of the close cross-disciplinary collaboration among oncologists, anesthesiologists, radiologists, immunologists, medical physicists, and engineers, with a central goal of improving our understanding of how tumor ablation initiates anti-tumor immune responses and modulates the tumor microenvironment.” 

Both studies are being funded by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. 

“This trial represents an important step forward as we explore focused ultrasound as a safer treatment for companion animals with this deadly cancer,” said Tonya Cherukuri, PhD, director of the Foundation’s Veterinary Program. “The Foundation is committed to promoting the One Medicine Initiative, where improving the lives of animals through focused ultrasound can also inform better treatments for humans.” 

About Purdue’s Tumor Ablation Program 
The tumor ablation program at the Werling Center brings advanced noninvasive and minimally invasive tumor destruction technologies to pets with cancer by integrating real-time imaging, such as ultrasound and CT, and functional imaging to precisely plan, guide, and monitor treatments while protecting surrounding healthy tissue. 

The program encompasses several directed energy–based ablation strategies designed to irreversibly disrupt tumor viability, structure, and function. Technologies such as thermal focused ultrasound, pulsed field ablation, and histotripsy enable precise tumor targeting while minimizing collateral damage and are delivered within clinical trials that both expand treatment options for patients and accelerate discovery across species. 

The tumor ablation team leading these efforts includes Dr. Dervisis, Dr. Childress, Dr. Klahn, and Keith Stanz (Medical Physics), along with research technicians Deb Stevenson and Kelly Martin. Their work reflects a highly coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to safely and effectively deliver advanced therapies in a clinical setting. 

For Patients 
Learn more about the osteosarcoma clinical trial. 

Learn more about the lymphoma clinical trial. 

For either trial, you may also contact the Oncology Tumor Ablation Service at TumorAblation@purdue.edu or 765-494-1130. 

Related Stories 
Foundation Research Awards Update: Six Preclinical Projects Launched in Fourth Quarter 2025 January 2026 

Foundation Welcomes Senior Advisor for Veterinary Initiatives April 2023 

Veterinary Program Milestone: Focused Ultrasound Safely Treats Canine Tumors August 2022

• Dr. Cherukuri will oversee all Foundation-funded projects that are advancing focused ultrasound veterinary research.
• She has more than a decade of leadership experience in scientific project management and instrumentation development.

Before joining the Foundation in 2025 as the Veterinary Program manager, Tonya Cherukuri, PhD, served as a vice president at Applied NanoFluorescence, where she spearheaded the design, development, and manufacturing of custom multimode spectroscopy systems. As part of this role, she led a Small Business Innovation Research (or SBIR) Phase I/II project to develop novel spectroscopic instrumentation for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Previously, she was a senior scientist at Sanofi. Her background in scientific innovation, program leadership, and applied research brings valuable technical depth and strategic perspective to her role as the Veterinary Program’s director.

Because veterinary medicine plays a unique role in medical research, the Foundation is fostering, supporting, and developing an active focused ultrasound veterinary community. Beyond benefiting both companion animals and their owners, veterinary clinical studies also support the rapid translation of innovations from bench to bedside.

Now, in the director role, Dr. Cherukuri will oversee the Foundation’s veterinary research portfolio, which currently has 14 open clinical studies at 8 institutions with nearly $3 million in funding. These clinical trials are treating diseases such as osteosarcoma, oral tumors, lymphoma, and heart disease in companion animals. 

“I’m motivated to continue to advance the research priorities identified by the program’s scientific advisory board,” said Dr. Cherukuri. “Visiting several of our principal investigators and research sites has also given me great insights on what is needed to take the program to the next level.” 

“It was an easy decision to promote Tonya into this role,” said Foundation Chairman Neal F. Kassell, MD. “Her leadership skills and program knowledge make her a valuable asset to our veterinary community. We look forward to supporting her as she expands the program, adopts new clinical devices, and makes it possible for veterinarians to treat more and more of their patients with focused ultrasound.” 

After earning a BS in chemistry from Grand Valley State University and completing her PhD in physical chemistry at Rice University, Dr. Cherukuri completed a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Learn More about the Veterinary Program