NY1 Spotlights Focused Ultrasound for Pediatric Cancer Treatment

Pontine glioma is an aggressive brain tumor that typically affects children around age five or six. The prognosis is grim, with most surviving less than a year after diagnosis. In their ongoing collaboration, Elisa Konofagou and Stergios Zacharoulis have developed a new method using focused ultrasound that could transform treatment for cancers like pontine glioma, as well as dozens of other conditions of the brain. Konofagou, whose pioneering work in focused ultrasound research helped to establish Columbia University as a Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence, is Robert and Margaret Hariri Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia Engineering and professor of radiology and of neurological sciences at Columbia. Zacharoulis is a pediatric oncologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and associate professor at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Both are members of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Lead Photo Caption: Collaborators Elisa Konofagou (right) and Stergios Zacharoulis 

Lead Photo Credit: Rudy Diaz