Caltech scientists develop ultrasound technique to track brain cancer

Researchers at Caltech, led by chemical engineer Mikhail Shapiro, have developed a trimodal ultrasound technique to track the progression of glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer. The study, published in iScience, addresses the difficulty of imaging deep brain tissue in living, moving subjects.

To make the tumors visible, the team used biological engineering to equip human glioblastoma cells with bacterial genes that produce microscopic, gas-filled bubbles called gas vesicles. This allows the tumor to be rendered visible during ultrasound scans.

The trimodal approach also monitors fluctuations in blood volume related to local brain activity and utilizes injected microbubbles to map the surrounding vascular network. In tests involving mice, the technique successfully monitored how the cancer physically remodels surrounding tissue and establishes its environment over an 11-day period.