Congratulations to George, Arash, Jerzy, Audrey and colleagues on their new article in Nature Materials introducing the concept of acoustically modulated MRI contrast agents, which address one of major limitations of MRI by taking advantage of the special magnetic and acoustic properties of gas vesicles.

Lu GJ, Farhadi A, Szablowski JO, Lee Gosselin A, Barnes SR, Lakshmanan A, Bourdeau RW, Shapiro MG. Acoustically modulated magnetic resonance imaging of gas-filled protein nanostructures. Nature Materials (2018).
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Congratulations to Hunter, Pradeep, Aadyot, Audrey and our collaborators at Harvard on a new study using NV diamond magnetometry to examine the microscale origins of MRI contrast.

Davis HC#, Ramesh P#, Bhatnagar A, Lee-Gosselin A, Barry JF, Glenn DR, Walsworth RL, Shapiro MG*. Mapping the microscale origins of MRI contrast with subcellular NV diamond magnetometry. Nature Communications 9, 131 (2018). article | press

Congratulations to Ray, Audrey, Anu, Arash, Priya and Suchita on their work on acoustic reporter genes, featured on the cover of Nature!

Bourdeau RW, Lee-Gosselin A, Lakshmanan A, Farhadi A, Ravindra Kumar S, Nety SP, Shapiro MG*. Acoustic reporter genes for noninvasive imaging of microorganisms in mammalian hosts. Nature 553, 86–90 (2018). article | news and views | press

Congratulations to Jerzy, Brian, Audrey and Dina on developing a new way to modulate specific parts of the brain noninvasively with a combination of spatial, genetic and temporal control.

A preprint describing this work has been posted on bioRxiv: Szablowski JO, Lue B, Lee-Gosselin A, Malounda D, Shapiro MG*. Acoustically targeted chemogenetics for noninvasive control of neural circuits.

Two new bioRxiv manuscripts from Caltech (with Tomo Sato and Doris Tsao) and the University of Minnesota (led by Hongsun Guo and Hubert Lim) describe a major effect of focused ultrasound on neural circuits. Congratulations to both teams on this rigorous scientific contribution to the field of ultrasonic neuromodulation.

Sato T*, Shapiro MG*, Tsao DY*. Ultrasonic neuromodulation causes widespread cortical activation via an indirect auditory mechanism.
Guo, H, Lim HH et al. Ultrasound produces extensive brain activation via a cochlear pathway.

Celebrating a great year! Photobooth

Congratulations to Manuel, Audrey, and our collaborator in Electrical Engineering Azita Emami on the publication of a new approach to localizing microscale integrated circuits in the body using the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance.

Article: Localization of microscale devices in vivo using addressable transmitters operated as magnetic spins (ATOMS)

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Interested in making your own gas vesicles for ultrasound or MRI? An (excruciatingly) detailed protocol on GV production, purification, functionalization and imaging has just been published in Nature Protocols. Thanks to Anupama, George, Arash, Suchita, colleagues and collaborators on putting together this valuable resource.

Article: Preparation of biogenic gas vesicle nanostructures for use as contrast agents for ultrasound and MRI

Dana Point, CA, August 26, 2017. Thanks to all the lab members, collaborators and friends who joined us!

Congratulations to David, Anu, Audrey, Johan, Yu-Li, Ray and our collaborator Dennis Kochmann on their article in Applied Physics Letters describing the development of nonlinear pulse sequences to maximize ultrasound contrast from gas vesicle protein nanostructures.

Article: Nonlinear ultrasound imaging of nanoscale acoustic biomolecules

See also a complementary article in Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology with collaborators at UofT detailing gas vesicles’ acoustic behavior.