SBIR Phase II: Transcranial Dynamic Focused Ultrasound for the Non-Invasive Opening of the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB)

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使新的治疗策略能够治疗脑癌等脑部疾病。治疗脑部疾病具有挑战性，部分原因是存在一种称为血脑屏障的解剖结构。这个屏障阻止几乎所有治疗分子从血液进入脑组织。这对患者和整个社会造成了严重的影响。例如，对于胶质母细胞瘤，最常见的原发性恶性脑肿瘤形式，五年生存率仅为6.8%。影响和商业潜力包括增加治疗选择，其中很少或没有可用的治疗选择，以及改善患者的治疗效果，所有这些都是通过一个对患者友好的系统来实现的，该系统旨在对现有治疗工作流程造成最小的干扰。此外，该项目的进展将为药物开发人员提供一个方便的工具来研究和开发新药，而无需开发一种特殊的载体来将药物输送到大脑中。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目涉及设计和构建一个系统的原型版本，该系统可以以非侵入性和非侵入性的方式向大脑提供治疗。该系统准确输送到大脑内感兴趣区域的性能将在模拟人类头部的测试环境中进行测量和表征。该项目将推进用于临床和研究环境的原型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to enable new therapeutic strategies to treat brain diseases such a brain cancer. Treating brain diseases is challenging partly because of the existence of an anatomical structure called the blood-brain barrier. This barrier prevents the entry of almost all therapeutic molecules into the brain tissue from the blood. This has led to a devastating impact on the patients and society as a whole. As an example, for glioblastoma, the most common form of primary malignant brain tumors, the five-year survival rate is only 6.8%. Impact and commercial potential include increased treatment options where few or none are available and improved patient outcomes, all with a system that is patient-friendly and designed to cause minimal disruption to the existing treatment workflows. Additionally, the advancement of this project will provide a convenient tool for drug developers to study and develop new drugs without the need to develop a special carrier to transport drugs into the brain. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project involves designing and building a prototype version of a system that can deliver therapies to the brain in a non-invasive and non-intrusive manner. The performance of this system to accurately deliver to regions of interest within the brain will be measured and characterized in a test environment mimicking that of a human head. This project will advance a prototype for use in both clinical and research settings.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.