Hong Chen, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and of radiation oncology in the School of Medicine, plans to develop and validate an incisionless treatment delivery method —named iSonogenetics — in animals with a three-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health. The iSonogenetics method uses focused ultrasound to deliver a viral construct containing ultrasound-sensitive ion channels to genetically selected neurons in the brain through the nose. The research will build on the success from the innovative work published in Brain Stimulation, which to date is the most downloaded article in the journal.
See the full press release here.