Dr. Hong Chen and her team have been utilizing focused ultrasound with microbubbles to open the blood-brain barrier for drug delivery or biomarker retrieval, but lacked a strategy to ensure the safety and consistency of their treatment. To address this, the team, which includes doctoral student Chih-Yen Chien, developed a quality assurance strategy that incorporates […]
Dr. Hong Chen has been named a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). She is being recognized as an academic inventor and emerging leader in her field, who has demonstrated achievements in patents, licensing and commercialization and has produced “technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare […]
The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) has published rankings of institutions, departments, and investigators based on the funding they receive from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). We are pleased to announce that Dr. Hong Chen is ranked 11th nationally among all Principal Investigators in Neurosurgery. Additionally, the WashU Neurosurgery ranked No. 5 in NIH […]
Our laboratory is embarking on a new chapter in 2024 by relocating to the Neuroscience Research Building — a 609,000-square-foot, 11-story facility — at 4370 Duncan Ave. The university invested $616 million to construct the building, the largest and most expensive in the medical school’s history. The investment was driven by leaders’ belief that the […]
NIH NIBIB funds the work of more than 5,000 researchers around the country and internationally. Being chosen as an NIH NIBIB Science Highlight is a prestigious recognition. The article “Ultrasound can briefly induce a hibernation-like state in animals” features our innovative research on ultrasound-induced artificial torpor. The piece presents ultrasound as a groundbreaking approach that […]
In just 5 years, our team turned the revolutionary Sonobiopsy technology from concept to commercialization amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This technology provides a noninvasive solution to brain disease diagnostics through the use of focused ultrasound for release of disease-specific biomarkers from brain to blood, which can further be detected and characterized using liquid-based biopsy. Cordance […]
Dr. Hong Chen and Dr. Eric Leuthardt, MD have laid the foundation for a revolutionary technique that noninvasively surveys the molecular and genetic information of brain tumors. This technique, termed sonobiopsy, uses focused ultrasound and microbubbles to precisely and accurately target a brain tumor lesion, temporarily disrupt the blood brain barrier at the target region, […]
The Chen lab recently received two NIH awards to fund their research on ultrasound combined with genetics for treatment of brain disorders. One of the awards — a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke — will fund the team’s transformative Sonogenetics 2.0 research, […]
Dingyue (Doris) Zhang received her first best poster award at the 15th International Conference on Ultrasound Engineering for Biomedical Applications (IC-UEBA). This award was given to the best three posters during the conference poster sessions. Congratulations to Dingyue on this wonderful achievement!
Some animals have an extraordinary ability to conserve energy by going into torpor, a physiological state marked by reduced body temperature and metabolic activity, which enables them to survive adverse environmental conditions such as harsh weather or lack of food. Hong Chen’s team, led by Yaoheng (Mack) Yang, demonstrated safe and noninvasive induction of torpor-like […]
Among more than 1,500 poster presentations at the 2023 ASGCT annual meeting, Dezhuang (Summer) Ye’s poster won the Outstanding Poster Award. The title of her poster presentation was “Focused ultrasound-mediated intranasal delivery for AAV delivery to targeted brain regions with minimal systemic exposure”.
Like the lymphatic system in the body, the glymphatic system in the brain clears metabolic waste and distributes nutrients and other important compounds. Impairments in this system may contribute to brain diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. Dezhuang (Summer) Ye in collaboration with the team found a noninvasive and nonpharmaceutical method to influence glymphatic […]
Congratulations to Dr. Yaohang (Mack) Yang for winning the BME PhD Outstanding Dissertation Award at WashU! This award is given to recognize a comprehensive body of independent scholarship that significantly advances the discipline. Yaohang’s thesis work has undoubtedly advanced the field of sonogenetics and neuromodulation. Congratulations for your amazing achievements!
POSITION SUMMARY We are actively looking for highly motivated PhD students, postdocs, and staff scientists to join our dynamic and collaborative lab situated at Washington University Medical School. Our lab is generously funded by the NIH and is dedicated to developing innovative tools for modulating neuron activities, diagnosing brain diseases, and revolutionizing their treatment. Our […]
The Hong Chen lab is developing a noninvasive method for release and detection of biomarkers characteristic of neurodegenerative disorders. Tau proteins in the brain are characteristic of several neurodegenerative disorders, and the Chen Ultrasound lab, along with collaborators, have found that using focused-ultrasound-mediated liquid biopsy, a method known as sonobiopsy, in a mouse model released […]
A total of $3.2 million fund is awarded to Drs. Leuthardt and Chen for five years in support of their clinical study of an ultrasound-mediated blood-based liquid biopsy technique for noninvasive molecular diagnosis of glioblastoma. Glioblastoma patients will be recruited to evaluate the feasibility and safety of this technique. Developing a noninvasive technique to diagnose […]
Dezhuang (Summer) Ye recently received the Young Investigator Award at the 8th International Symposium on Focused Ultrasound. This award recognizes outstanding research by scientists-in-training in the field of focused ultrasound. Dezhuang was awarded for her work on ultrasound enabled incisionless brain gene delivery and ultrasound manipulation of the glymphatic system. At the symposium, Dezhuang also […]
Chinwendu (Chinwe) Chukwu received an “Early Stage” PhD Student award at WashU’s 2022 BME PhD retreat. This award was given to early-stage doctoral candidates who presented promising research during the retreat’s poster sessions. Congratulations to Chinwe on this wonderful achievement!
Led by Dr. Dezhuang (Summer) Ye, the Chen lab recently developed a new method for delivering genes to the brain, called Focused Ultrasound-mediated Intranasal Delivery (FUSIN). Dr. Ye and her team recently found that the FUSIN-delivered genes had comparable or better outcomes than existing methods while minimizing systemic effects on other organs. Dr. Ye’s study […]
Yaoheng (Mack) Yang has been selected as a recipient of a 2022 Trainee Professional Development Award (TPDA) from the Society of Neuroscience (SfN). This award is given to scientists who have demonstrated great merit and strength in their research. Congratulations, Mack, on this wonderful achievement!