June 30, 2016

Open-source instructions for focused ultrasound provide cancer research boost

Vanderbilt University’s William Grissom and Charles Caskey are throwing open doors with a do-it-yourself, open-source software and hardware guide to enabling existing imaging machines with focused ultrasound technology.

Focused ultrasound is FDA-approved to treat three medical conditions and under investigation to treat dozens more. Just this week, popular TV journalist and surgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta explored the topic of focused ultrasound (FUS) as an experimental treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

But the needed equipment costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and is tough to find, limiting potentially lifesaving research.

Vanderbilt University’s William Grissom, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Charles Caskey, assistant professor of radiology, are throwing open doors with a do-it-yourself, open-source software and hardware guide so that researchers can convert imaging machines into FUS and find their own applications.