On 21th October from 9.30 to 11 in the Aula Carelli  of our Department,  Prof. Carmel Moran, professor of "Traslational Ultrasound" at the University of Edinburgh, currently visiting professor at the Department of Drug Chemistry and  Technologies of will held a seminar.

Commercially available ultrasonic contrast agents are used routinely within clinics to increase the overall diagnostic sensitivity of ultrasound scans. These contrast agents are composed of micron-sized bubbles which resonate at low acoustic pressures and at clinical frequencies of insonation.  Recently, these commercial contrast microbubbles have been shown to enable the temporary opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) when insonated with a focused ultrasound beam facilitating the passage of drugs into the brain.

Within the Moran research group a range of sizes and composition of contrast microbubbles have been manufactured to investigate both the temporal and spatial extent of BBB opening in preclinical models under a range of insonation conditions. The group have also investigated the targeting of contrast microbubbles to specific biological markers and the ability to load bubbles with super-paramagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles (SPIONS) to enable multi-modality imaging.

This presentation will illustrate the potential versatility of ultrasonic contrast bubbles for targeting to specific biological sites and delivery of their payload.