Hunt-ing for new therapies: From red blood cells to acoustic nanobubbles

Abstract

The Acoustical Society has undoubtedly nurtured me through all key stages of my career. I attended my first ASA meeting as the last doctoral student of noise acoustician Prof. Shon Ffowcs Williams, working on acoustic scattering from red blood cells to detect hemolysis. At a time when I was questioning whether research in general and acoustics in particular were right for me, the unexpected award of the biomedical acoustics student prize (Atlanta, 2000) and a chance meeting with my future Hunt fellowship mentor, Prof. Ron Roy, radically changed my outlook. Until that point, my perception of biomedical acoustics had been confined to diagnostic applications, but discovering the emerging therapeutic potential of focused ultrasound and acoustic cavitation made me realize that it was possible for an acoustician to impact key aspects of human health, such as treating cancer or facilitating orthopedic surgery. Much of the training and inspiration of my Hunt fellowship year at Boston University (2002–2003) travel...