Kenneth Bader

Associate Professor
Biological Sciences Division
The University of Chicago

baderk@uchicago.edu

Dept. and Web

Radiology

Project Description

Assessment of mechanical strain during histotripsy

Microbubbles are an active area of research, in part because of their ability to force soft materials like tissue into extreme loading conditions. Noninvasive focused ultrasound systems exploit this property of microbubbles to break down diseased tissue, achieving the same goals of surgery without requiring an incision.

There is a clear potential for use of this technology in medicine, though the conditions that result in the failure of tissue structures remains unclear. This gap-in-knowledge limits guidance the U.S. FDA can provide to medical device developers, which inhibits the growth of the field. These therapies are therefore outpacing regulatory sciences, indicating the need for fundamental research into their mechanisms of microbubble-induced fatigue of soft materials.

To address this need, the scientific premise of this project is advances in mechanochemistry can be used to quantify microbubble-induced deformation. An imprintable mechanophore formulation will be used to capture transient microbubble stresses in the following aims:

Studies in Aim 1 will develop and characterize a mechanophore-based tissue phantom. Data collected in Aim 2 will determine the extent over which soft materials are stressed by microbubbles. Finally, the link between stresses, cell death, and other markers of microbubble activity will be established in Aim 3. This project will produce new knowledge on the interaction of microbubbles with soft materials, and a regulatory tool (e.g., tissue phantom) to assess new focused ultrasound devices.

Requirement

CAD modeling and 3D printing; basic wet lab skills; electronics skills