Blood-Brain Barrier Opening

Many neurological disorders remain intractable to treatment by therapeutic agents due to the brain's natural defense: the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB). The BBB impedes entry of virtually all molecules from blood capillaries to brain tissue; rendering thus potent neurologically active substances and drugs ineffective, simply because they cannot be delivered to where they are most needed. As a result, the BBB is the rate-limiting factor in brain drug delivery. The only truly transient, local, and non-invasive opening of the BBB under study as of now is with focused ultrasound (FUS).

The purpose of this project is to understand the mechanism, ensure the safety and efficacy, and optimize the methods of BBB opening using FUS. Ongoing studies will lead to the development of optimal parameters to induce BBB opening, performing of long term studies of this phenomena, and testing for the delivery of model drugs.