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IHE Colloquium Series: Biomedical Ultrasound in Mechanical Engineering

20 November 2018, 6:00 pm–7:00 pm

Prof Nader Saffari

As part of our colloquium series, Prof Nader Saffari will present ‘Biomedical Ultrasound in Mechanical Engineering’.

Event Information

Open to

All

Organiser

UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering

Location

G08
Roberts Building
Torrington Place
London
WC1E 7JE
United Kingdom

Ultrasound imaging has been one of the pillars of medical diagnosis for the past three decades. Over the past decade, the use of ultrasound for therapeutic purposes has also been steadily growing. The thermal or mechanical effects of ultrasound have been used for mediating an impressive array of beneficial bio-effects, such as the ablation of tumours, the reversible opening up of cellular junctions and targeted drug release.  

Currently, Focused Ultrasound (FUS) is being studied for the treatment of 50 different medical conditions at 274 research sites across the world. To date, more than 100,000 patients have been treated at clinical and commercial centres for a range of conditions including prostate cancer, uterine fibroids, brain disorders, breast cancer and palliation for bone metastases. Regulatory approvals are now in place around the world for the treatment of 19 different conditions, and this list is fast growing. Despite this impressive volume of activity, there are still many scientific challenges that need to be overcome in order to fully utilise the potentials of this non-invasive, non-ionising form of therapy for an even wider range of conditions in the clinic.  

In this talk some of the more recent research in biomedical and therapeutic ultrasound conducted by the Ultrasonics Group at UCL Mechanical Engineering will be reviewed. 

About the Speaker

Prof Nader Saffari

Professor of Ultrasonics at UCL

Nader Saffari has a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Leeds UK, obtained an MSc in Microwaves and Modern Optics and was awarded his PhD in Ultrasonic Non-destructive Evaluation by University College London (UCL) in 1986. After completing his studies he worked for six years as a consultant in the field of ultrasonic NDE for industrial clients. In 1992 he joined UCL as a member of academic staff and set up the Ultrasonics Group. For the next 14 years he worked on developing novel ultrasonic measurement and analysis techniques for characterisation of advanced engineering materials such as aerospace composites. During this time his group developed a strong theoretical modelling activity for ultrasound interaction with different defects in inhomogeneous media. In 2006, Nader made a complete sideways shift into the field of medical ultrasound. He is now Professor of Ultrasonics at UCL and his current research interests include high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for the ablation of tumors, mathematical modelling of ultrasound propagation and scattering in inhomogeneous tissues, histotripsy for intrahepatic cell delivery, ultrasound mediated neuro-modulation, ultrasound mediated drug delivery and shear wave tumor detection in the prostate.Nader has over 150 research publications.