A major limitation in current methods of drug delivery is the inability to deliver enough drugs to the target location. In addition, numerous tumours have high interstitial fluid pressures, or are resistant to current chemotherapeutics.

Sonoporation is a tool that will helps bypass such barriers using non-invasive ultrasound and intravenously injected microbubbles. The ultrasound is targeted at the site of interest, and as the microbubbles pass by the tumours, the ultrasound forces them to interact with the nearby cells. This interaction enhances the efficacy to the drugs used in numerous ways. The video below shows how microbubbles and cells can interact using low energy, clinically safe ultrasound. The bubbles are the dark spheres, and the cells are pancreatic cancer cells. The bubbles can be seen to pass through cells, drill into cells, and merge into cells, all within a few seconds.

Imaging Mass Cytometry™ (IMC™) performed on the Hyperion™ Imaging System using Maxpar® metal-tagged antibodies empowers simultaneous imaging of up to 37 protein markers at a time. Bringing together high-parameter CyTOF® technology with imaging capability, the Hyperion Imaging System enables deep interrogation of tissues and tumors at subcellular resolution to uncover pathology insights, new biomarker correlations and cell interactions.

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