News

A conventional ultrasound image (left) is insensitive to the stiffness or shear modulus of tissue, as shown in this image of a test object with a 1 cm stiff inclusion. The greater modulus of the inclusion is clearly revealed in the SMURF image (right).

Professor Stephen McAleavey of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has been awarded a new U.S. Patent. The patent, number 8,225,666, is titled Ultrasound Imaging of Tissue Stiffness by Spatially Modulated Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse. The patent details a new ultrasound elastography technique, termed SMURF imaging, that uses acoustic radiation force to quantify tissue stiffness. Tissue stiffness is a known indicator of disease. Thus, this new technology will be useful clinically to noninvasively diagnosis fibrosis, cancerous tumors, vascular diseases, and monitor the progress of ablation therapies. Professor McAleavey is an active member of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound (RCBU).

Professor Stephen McAleavey has received the Wadsworth C Sykes Engineering Faculty Award from the University of Rochester Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The award will be used to create new undergraduate lab experiences for BME 253 Ultrasound Imaging. These developments will include the acquisition of a clinical ultrasound scanner with RF data acquisition capability to support laboratories in B-mode and Doppler ultrasound imaging.

A local company is connecting innovators with people who want to fund their inventions. Their first venture is with the University of Rochester. Researchers at the University of Rochester come up with a lot of inventions that, if they had money, would be extremely helpful to the public. So what Innovocracy wants to do is link up inventors at the institutions like the U of R with people who want to help those inventions become marketable.

Despite it being summer at the University of Rochester, researchers are still busy working. Dr. Stephen McAleavey, UR Researcher, said, We got a team of 4 or 5 of our seniors to work on the project for a semester.