Cavitation-based bio-ablation and drug delivery

The proposed research will critically advance the medical use of high-intensity focused sound waves, namely ultrasound and shock waves. In particular, the project aims to break grounds by elucidating the physics behind ultrasound and microbubble-mediated targeted drug delivery and non-thermal, cavitation-based ablation of biological tissues and stones, relevant in the treatments of neurological diseases, tumours, blood clots, bacterial infections and kidney stones. Through carefully designed in-vitro experiments, the project aims at explaining and comprehensively characterising, uniquely within a single framework, the currently elusive mechanisms behind the mechanical bioeffects produced by cavitation activity across a wide range of acoustic driving conditions from gentle, low-amplitude ultrasound for reversible cellular sonopermeabilisation to drugs up to the fragmentation of stones in shock wave lithotripsy. This will be achieved using a unique combination of advanced measurement techniques such as ultrafast videomicroscopy and synchrotron X-ray imaging, and leveraging the PI's expertise in acoustics, microbubble technology and the physics of cavitation.The expected outcomes of the proposed research are to i) help optimise the mechanical effects in medical sound wave therapies to improve their safety, precision and efficacy and allowing swift clinical translation for emerging medical therapies; ii) significantly advance experimental techniques to spatiotemporally resolve ultrafast microevents; iii) refine acoustic cavitation detection techniques in the clinical setting by correlating specific visually observed cavitation activities to their acoustic signatures; and iv) propose a new, rigorous measure to assess safety against mechanical bioeffects caused by cavitation in clinical applications using high-amplitude sound waves.