May 18, 2023

Our May 18, 2023 webinar featured Elisa E. Konofagou, PhD from Columbia University presenting:

"BBB opening for immunodulation as well as drug and gene delivery - preclinical evaluation and clinical feasibility studies"

About the Professor

Elisa Konofagou is the Robert and Margaret Hariri Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor Radiology as well as Director of the Ultrasound and Elasticity Imaging Laboratory at Columbia University in New York City. Her main interests are in the development of novel theranostic and therapeutic ultrasound methods for the advancement of therapeutic ultrasound. Her group has been working in the field for more than 18 years with applications in breast and pancreatic cancer ablation monitoring as well as brain therapeutics that involve drug delivery through the blood-brain barrier. Elisa has co-authored over 270 published articles in the aforementioned fields. She is recipient of the CAREER award by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Nagy award by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Technological Achievement Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Engineering in Medicine and Biology society (EMBS), the Carl Hellmuth Hertz Ultrasonics Award by the IEEE Society in Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (UFFC) gas well as additional recognitions by the American Heart Association, the Acoustical Society of America, the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the Wallace H. Coulter foundation, the Bodossaki foundation, the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Elisa is an Elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine (US), an Elected Fellow in multiple organizations including the IEEE, the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering (AIMBE) and of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). She is an administrative committee member of the IEEE in Engineering in Medicine and Biology conference (EMBC) and technical committee of IEEE in Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society (UFFC), the Acoustical Society of America and the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine. Prof. Konofagou is also a technical committee member of the Acoustical Society of America, the International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology conference (EMBC), the IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). Elisa serves as Associate Editor in the journals of IEEE-UFFC Transactions, Ultrasonic Imaging and Medical Physics. Elisa also serves as a member of the Greek National Council for Research, Technology and Innovation which directs all scientific research and innovation in Greece and she recently served as President of the Focused Ultrasound Symposium held in Bethesda, Maryland.

Elisa has also spun off a company (Delsona) based on her blood-barrier work with MRI-free FUS. Her clinical team has completed two clinical trials for drug-free BBB opening in Alzheimer’s patients and BBB opening in pediatric cancer patients with a drug and four are in the works for Alzheimer;s, brain tumors, Parkinson’s and neural circuitry mapping. She also leads a clinical study in breast cancer ablation as a non-surgical alternative in benign cancer and as neo-adjuvant in non-metastatic malignant tumors.

Elisa served as Co-Chair of the ISTU conference held in New York City in 2011 as well as ex officio board member from 2011-2015. Her group has continuously presented their work at the ISTU conferences every year since 2005 and her students have participated in student competitions with several awards. Elisa was also instrumental in organizing the ISTU/AIUM first joint conference which brought the clinical ultrasound conference together with therapeutic ultrasound experts in Las Vegas, NV in 2014.