Mehmet Fatih Yanik from the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH Zurich and UZH has won a Bridge Discovery Award. Yanik and his team recently developed a novel technology for non-invasive focal drug delivery to the brain circuits using focused ultrasound. This technology is now being transferred for clinical applications.
Treating anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and epilepsy remains difficult. One of the fundamental challenges is that the issues are present in particular brain regions or circuits. Systemic drugs do not target these brain regions and circuits. Yanik has implemented a new non-invasive, and exact method for focal drug delivery with his approach using focused ultrasound. As a next step, he plans to work with other research groups to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of this technology in preclinical large animal models.
Link: https://www.ini.uzh.ch/en/public/news?id=101846
Image: Mehmet Fatih Yanik