Brandon Helfield, PhD

Research

Biomedical ultrasound imaging and therapeutics, targeted drug delivery, microbubbles, sonoporation biophysics, phase-change droplets, endothelial cell biology

Education

Junior Scientist, Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute
Postdoctoral Fellow, Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh
Ph.D. Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
B.Sc. Physics, McGill University

Awards

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career at the Scientific Interface Award
American Society for Echocardiography Arthur E. Weyman Young Investigator Award
European Symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging Young Investigator Award

1.Helfield, B.L., Yoo, K., Williams, R., Sheeran, P., Goertz, D.E.,and Burns, P.N. Investigating the accumulation of submicron phase-changed droplets in tumours, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 46(10), 2861-2879 (2020)

2.Helfield, B.L., Chen,X., Watkins, S. and Villanueva, F.S. Transendothelial perforations and the sphere of influence of single-site sonoporation, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 46(7), 1686-1697 (2020)

3.Helfield, B.L.  A review of phospholipid-coated ultrasound contrast agent microbubble physics, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 45(2), 282-300 (2019).

4.Helfield, B.L., Chen, X., Qin, B., Watkins, S. and Villanueva, F.S. Mechanistic insight into sonoporation with ultrasound-stimulated polymer microbubbles, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol.43(11), 2678-2689 (2017).

5.Helfield, B.L., Chen, X., Watkins, S. and Villanueva, F.S. Biophysical insight into mechanisms of sonoporation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113(36), 9983-9988 (2016).

6.Helfield, B.L., Black, J.J., Qin, B.,Pacella, J., Chen, X. and Villanueva, F.S. Fluid viscosity affects the fragmentation and inertial cavitation threshold of lipid encapsulated microbubbles, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 42(3), 782-794 (2016).

7.Helfield, B.L., Qin, B., Chen, X. and Villanueva, F.S.  Individual lipid encapsulated microbubble radial oscillations: Effect of fluid viscosity, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 139(1), 204-214 (2016).

8.Huynh, E., Leung, B.Y.C., Helfield, B.L., Shakiba, M., Gandier, J., Jin, C.S., Master, E.R., Wilson, B.C., Goertz, D.E., Zheng, G. In situ conversion of porphyrin microbubbles to nanoparticles for multimodality imaging, Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 10(4), 325-332 (2015).

8.Helfield, B.L., Leung, B.Y.C. and Goertz, D.E. The influence of compliant boundary proximity on the fundamental and subharmonic emissions from individual microbubbles, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Express Letters, Vol. 136(1),EL40-EL46 (2014).

9.Helfield, B.L., Leung, B.Y.C., Huo, X., and Goertz, D.E. Scaling of the viscoelastic shell properties of phospholipid encapsulated microbubbles with ultrasound frequency, Ultrasonics, Vol. 54(6), 1419-1424 (2014).

10.Helfield, B.L., Leung, B.Y.C. and Goertz, D.E. The effect of boundary proximity on the response of individual ultrasound contrast agent microbubbles, Physics in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 59(7), 1721-1745 (2014).

11.Jeon M., Song, W., Huynh, E., Kim J.,Kim, J., Helfield, B.L., Leung, B.Y.C., Goertz, D.E., Zheng, G., Oh, J., Lovell, J. and Kim, C.  Methylene blue microbubbles as a model dual-modality contrast agent for ultrasound and activatable photoacoustic imaging, Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 19(1), 016005 (2014).

12.Helfield,B.L. and Goertz, D.E. Nonlinear resonance behavior and linear shell estimates for Definity^TM and MicroMarker^TM assessed with acoustic microbubble spectroscopy, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 133(2), 1158-1168 (2013).

13.Helfield, B.L., Cherin, E., Foster, S. and Goertz, D.E. The Effect of Binding on the Subharmonic Emissions from Individual Lipid-Encapsulated Microbubbles at Transmit Frequencies of 11 and 25MHz, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 39(2), 345-359 (2013).

14.Huynh, E.,Lovell, J.F., Helfield, B.L., Jeon,M., Kim, C., Goertz, D.E., Wilson, B.C. and Zheng, G. Porphyrin Shell Microbubbles with Intrinsic Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Properties, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 134(40), 16464-16467 (2012).

15.Helfield, B.L., Huo, E., Williams, R. and Goertz, D.E. The effect of pre-activation vial temperature on the acoustic properties of Definity^TM, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 38(7), 1298-1305 (2012).

16.Helfield, B.L., Cherin, E., Foster, S. and Goertz, D.E. Investigating the subharmonic response of individual phospholipid encapsulated microbubbles at high frequencies: a comparative study of five agents, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 38(5), 846-863 (2012).

For citations, see Dr. Helfield's Google Scholar