Ultrasound is low-cost, non-ionizing, and portable imaging modality and is easily translatable from laboratory-based feasibility studies to clinics. In addition to diagnosis, ultrasound can be applied for therapy such as focused ultrasound (FUS)-induced thermal ablation of cancer. While ultrasound is known for anatomical imaging, ultrasound elastography can be used to assess mechanical properties(e.g., viscoelasticity and anisotropy) of tissues. In this talk, I will discuss how these advantages of Ultrasound can be harnessed by modifying beam and pulse sequences for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. I will introduce a Blind Source Separation (BSS)-based motion estimation technique to improve the performance of magnetomotive ultrasound and acoustic radiation force imaging. We will discuss the Viscoelastic Response (VisR) ultrasound method for assessing viscoelastic and anisotropic properties of tissues with application in detecting kidney diseases in renal transplant patients. Finally, I will end the talk with a discussion of single transducer harmonic motion imaging for the diagnosis of breast cancer and monitoring of FUS-induced thermal ablation of cancer.

Dr. Murad Hossain is currently an Associate Research Scientist working with Prof. Elisa Konofagou in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Columbia University, New York, and developing novel ultrasound based methods for diagnosis, therapy monitoring, thermal ablation, and neuromodulation. He received a B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Islamic University of Technology, Bangladesh in 2009, an M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from George Mason University (GMU), Fairfax, VA, USA in 2014, and the Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, NC, USA, and North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, NC, in 2019 with a focus on ultrasound elastography. During his Ph.D., he developed VisR ultrasound to interrogate viscoelastic and anisotropic properties of tissue and applied VisR-derived viscoelastic and anisotropic properties to detect kidney dysfunction in renal transplant patients. He held 3 patents and authored 15 peer-reviewed journal articles and 28 conference proceedings. He was awarded the IEEE IUS conference travel, UNC BME department, NCSU graduate merit award, and GMU Chairman awards.