Focused ultrasound is a non-invasive therapeutic technology with the potential to transform the treatment of many medical disorders by focusing acoustic energy to target tissue deep in the body without the need for surgical incisions nor radiation. A subset of this platform aims to promote the site-specific delivery of therapeutic cargo to regions of disease under image-guidance. Here, I will provide a brief overview of the state of the field within the specific contexts of brain cancer and cardiovascular disease.
L’utilisation des ultrasons focalisés est une technologie thérapeutique non invasive ayant le potentiel de transformer le traitement de nombreux troubles médicaux en focussant sur l’énergie acoustique pour cibler les tissus des parties les plus profondes et en évitant les incisions chirurgicales et les radiations. Un sous-ensemble de cette plateforme vise à promouvoir la livraison spécifique de cargaisons thérapeutiques à des régions malades sous guidage par imagerie. Je présenterai ici un bref aperçu de l'état de ce domaine dans des contextes spécifiques tels que le cancer du cerveau et les maladies cardiovasculaires.
The talks will be given in English / Les présentations seront en anglais
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Brandon Helfield is an early-career Assistant Professor in both the Biology and Physics departments at Concordia University. He is a Tier II CRC and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) Career at the Scienfic Interface (CASI) Fellow. Aer obtaining his undergraduate degree from McGill followed by his PhD in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Research Instute, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship within the cardiology division of the University of Pitsburgh Medical Center. The focus of his transdisciplinary research is biomedical ultrasound therapeucs for targeted and image-guided gene and cell delivery in the context of cardiac regenerave medicine and cancer immunotherapy (e.g. brain cancers). His research has been funded by CIHR, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS), Heart and Stroke Foundaon of Canada (HSFC), the Cancer Research Society (CRS), the BWF, NSERC and the FRQ.