INSTITUTE SEMINAR


How can functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) impact your research, and what’s next?

Speaker

Alan Urban

Date and time

21 april 2023 12:30

Place

Instituto Cajal

Abstract

Functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) is based on Doppler ultrasound to track changes in cerebral blood volume as an indirect readout of evoked neuronal activity. It is similar to fMRI but with better spatiotemporal resolution and fewer technical constraints. Indeed, fUSI can be performed in head-fixed or freely behaving rodents and allows volumetric images of the entire mouse brain. Proof of concept studies has been conducted in many species, including primates and humans. fUSI has reached maturity, and open access hardware and software solutions developed at NERF contribute to a faster and broader adoption by the neuroscience community. This seminar aims to introduce the physical basis of fUSI and present state-of-the-art in the field while providing detailed examples of the most impactful fUSI research. I will also discuss the latest capabilities of fUSI and suggest routes for improving the fUSI technology in the next few years.

Affiliation and short bio

Dr. Alan URBAN received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Lorraine University in 2008, funded by the French Ministry of Research and Technology. In 2010, he graduated in experimental surgery from Paris Descartes university. From 2009 to 2012, he was an assistant professor of neuroscience in the engineering school ESPCI in Paris and a postdoctoral researcher at CNRS. From 2012 to 2016, he was a postdoctoral researcher leading a team at Hospital Sainte-Anne/INSERM in Paris. He significantly contributed to the spread of functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) technology. Since 2016, he has been a group leader at the Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders (NERF), empowered by VIB, KU Leuven, and imec (Belgium). Alan has also been an invited scientist at the RIKEN Institute (Japan) and Tel-Aviv University (Israel). He has received several scientific and entrepreneurship awards, such as the Nobert Segard Price (2013) and the from Paris City Hall at the 117th Concours Lépine (2017). Alan is a multi-entrepreneur with medical imaging technology, art, and real estate activities. He is a part-time professor in the Neurophysiology department at KU Leuven.

Download seminar poster
Download sketch
Skip to content