Imagine you want to stimulate human brain for therapeutic needs or make better understanding our brain. For now, primary choice is to use the magnetic stimulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation), but the target is limited to the surface of the brain just under the skull. Alternatively, if you want to stimulate the deeper area of the brain, you need to implant the stimulating electrode by compromising a long list of potential side-effects. Imagine you want to deliver a drug or any type of chemical compound into the brain. For now, you have limited choice of the compound, since most of them cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier. Therefore, you need to rely on the more invasive method to deliver them to the brain.
We are hoping that the high intensity focused ultrasound could challenge these proven hurdles. We are developing an experimental technique that enables drug transport (DDS) and noninvasive stimulation to the deep brain by transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS). For the DDS, by using tFUS and microbubble injection in combination, we aim to temporarily release the blood-brain barrier of the site localized to the deep brain region, and transport the BBB non-passing drug confined to that site. On the other hand, in noninvasive stimulation of the deep brain, we are aiming to modulate the neural activity by applying them physical, oscillatory stress (oscillation and cavitation generated by an interaction between microbubble and tFUS). Importantly, we are using non-human primate as an experimental model aiming to translate these technique into human patient. Larger and thicker skull, compared with more conventional experimental animals (e.g., rodents) may prevent for the ultrasound to penetrate and concentrate into a small area. However, if we could overcome them by applying recently advanced theory and technology, it should be beneficial to make a better therapeutic approach as well as better understanding how our brain works. In this talk, I would like to introduce our multidisciplinary, collaborating research and discuss with the audience to improve our research.