Design and Development of Focused Ultrasound Brain Drug Delivery System

It has been discovered recently that focused ultrasound stimulation, which has long been utilized for noninvasive thermal ablation, but also can be utilized for localized and temporal BBB disruption in brain tissue, which opens the opportunity for local drug delivery into brain (Currently 98% of drugs cannot penetrate into brain). Current focused ultrasound application has been emphasized for thermal ablation, and medical device manufacturers such as GE, SIMENS, Philips, and ChongCing HAIFU have been devoted to develop their devices for thermal ablation purpose. However, the development of FUS brain drug delivery is currently empty and becomes an excellent opportunity to build an important market share when involving this technology in a very early phase. Our team, since 2005, continues to devote to this research topics and IP protection, and have already become a global leader in this technology development. The aim of this proposal intends to design a MRI compatible high-end ultrasonic driving system for transcranial brain drug delivery, which can enhance and facilitate blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening for local drug release in the brain. This project will run in three years, which in the 1st year for functional establishment, and in the 2nd year for prototype design, and the 3rd year for clinical evaluation and feasibility testing, and will cover the system design, feasibility test, EMC test, animal experiment (including small and large animals), and clinical experiments. Expected outcomes includes: (1) Scientific output (at least 2 SCI journal and 2 international conference publish), (2) at least 10 professional training can be cultivated through the execution of this project and provide chance to enter high-end medical device market; (3) Intellectual property output includes 1 international or Taiwan patents stem from this project execution per year.

Project ID:PC10109-0132
External Project ID:NSC101-2321-B182-015