3D monitoring and control of microbubble cavitation for gene delivery

Previous work showed promising results in healing large bone fractures using ultrasound-mediated gene delivery. To further improve current gene therapy for bone fractures, we aim to develop the capability to monitor and control microbubble (MB) cavitation in 3D. In this work, a generic 1024-channel 3D real-time ultrasound tomography system is introduced. B-mode, contrast-enhanced imaging and passive acoustic mapping have been implemented. Volumetric ultrasound imaging uses a motion controller to realize 3D imaging capabilities. Half wavelength spatial resolution and 150 dB dynamic range with improved CNR have been achieved with our current setup. With incoherent compounding, MB cavitation can be localized in a circular region with a diameter of ~ 2.5 mm. Arrays of different aperture size and frequency can be assembled in personalized geometries (e.g. full ring, half ring) and integrated into our tomography system. The system will be applied broadly, including creating the ability to heal bone defects using MB-based gene delivery.