Academic-Industrial Partnership for Translation of Acoustic Angiography

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PROJECT SUMMARY Traditional grayscale ultrasound imaging is widely used in diagnostics because of its accessibility, low-cost, portability, and safety. Ultrasound is the only modality which is getting smaller and less expensive, and thereby more accessible to rural and underserved populations. Modern ultrasound systems can now be handheld and cost ~ 1/1000th of an MRI system. However, the major challenge remains that ultrasound is poorly specific to solid cancers. Techniques to improve the specificity and sensitivity of ultrasound to solid tumors would have a significant impact in early detection and reduction of unnecessary biopsies, saving lives and reducing healthcare costs. Our team is developing an innovative microvascular imaging technology, based on hardware advances in multi-frequency ultrasound transducers, as well as signal processing techniques to specifically detect contrast agents while reducing background noise. Preliminary data using the first generation of this technology has shown substantial potential to improve our ability to differentiate cancerous lesions from healthy tissue, based on the ability to resolve differences in angiogenic vasculature morphology from healthy tissue. This diversity supplement will support Ms. Jadyn Cook’s career development and scientific training in biomedical engineering of ultrasound tools to improve our detection of cancer. Her research focus relevant to the parent grant will focus on the development and testing of dual-frequency ultrasound techniques.