OxCD3
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Engineering Science
Abstract
OxCD3 has developed nano-droplets suitable for drug delivery inside the brain, and are developing methods to chemically target these to small brain metastases, particularly those too small to reliably image.
When combined with an ultrasound field, these droplets vaporise into gas bubbles, and release their therapeutic payload. In turn, these gas bubbles improve drug delivery in a number of ways. The microbubbles oscillate in a sound field, causing mechanical stresses on the surrounding tissue and flow in surrounding fluid.
The flows and stresses around oscillating microbubbles has been shown to open the blood-brain-barrier, and to enhance the rate of mass transfer for otherwise slow moving, high molecular weight therapeutic agents.
To develop this technology into a clinical treatment, a diffuse ultrasound field must be created inside the skull to vaporise the nanodroplets and activate their therapeutic effects. This is the focus of my project.
Ultrasound inside the skull presents a number of challenges. The skull has very different acoustic properties to the brain, meaning coupling of ultrasound into and out of the skull causes reflection of a large amount of the ultrasound energy.
The skull bone also greatly attenuates ultrasound, at least compared to water. This causes losses and heating of the skull bone, which is likely to be clinically unacceptable.
The skull is also inhomogeneous in thickness, and has a higher sound speed than water, which causes unpredictable phase changes, and therefore uncertainty in the field being created inside the skull.
Some research has been done in this area, but the aim has often been to create a highly focused field inside the skull. Creating a highly diffuse field is a different and less studied challenge.
Initial research methodologies would be the investigation of analytical models for ultrasound transmission through the skull, followed by more extensive modelling of the problem with FE software.
The centre already has equipment suitable for propagating ultrasound fields through the skull, so results could be experimentally verified in vitro quickly.
The IBME group keeps a large selection of transducers and is able to manufacture acoustic lenses, which should allow rapid testing of concepts for beamforming inside the skull.
This project falls within the EPSRC Clinical Technologies research area.
When combined with an ultrasound field, these droplets vaporise into gas bubbles, and release their therapeutic payload. In turn, these gas bubbles improve drug delivery in a number of ways. The microbubbles oscillate in a sound field, causing mechanical stresses on the surrounding tissue and flow in surrounding fluid.
The flows and stresses around oscillating microbubbles has been shown to open the blood-brain-barrier, and to enhance the rate of mass transfer for otherwise slow moving, high molecular weight therapeutic agents.
To develop this technology into a clinical treatment, a diffuse ultrasound field must be created inside the skull to vaporise the nanodroplets and activate their therapeutic effects. This is the focus of my project.
Ultrasound inside the skull presents a number of challenges. The skull has very different acoustic properties to the brain, meaning coupling of ultrasound into and out of the skull causes reflection of a large amount of the ultrasound energy.
The skull bone also greatly attenuates ultrasound, at least compared to water. This causes losses and heating of the skull bone, which is likely to be clinically unacceptable.
The skull is also inhomogeneous in thickness, and has a higher sound speed than water, which causes unpredictable phase changes, and therefore uncertainty in the field being created inside the skull.
Some research has been done in this area, but the aim has often been to create a highly focused field inside the skull. Creating a highly diffuse field is a different and less studied challenge.
Initial research methodologies would be the investigation of analytical models for ultrasound transmission through the skull, followed by more extensive modelling of the problem with FE software.
The centre already has equipment suitable for propagating ultrasound fields through the skull, so results could be experimentally verified in vitro quickly.
The IBME group keeps a large selection of transducers and is able to manufacture acoustic lenses, which should allow rapid testing of concepts for beamforming inside the skull.
This project falls within the EPSRC Clinical Technologies research area.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Eleanor Stride (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Luke Richards (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/N509711/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2021 | |||
| 2439912 | Studentship | EP/N509711/1 | 01/10/2016 | 31/05/2021 | Luke Richards |