Adam Waspe

Research Interests: Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Therapy, Hyperthermia-Mediated Drug Delivery, Image-Guided Surgery, Laser-Interstitial Thermal Therapies, Medical and Surgical Robotics, MRI-Compatible Devices

I am a researcher within the Poslun’s Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention (PCIGITI) at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), where my primary interests are related to magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRgHIFU) for pediatric and fetal medicine. I am also a Project Investigator in the SickKids Research Institute and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Imaging at the University of Toronto. Lastly, I am a physicist within the Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Division of Image Guided Therapy, at SickKids, where I help to develop clinical protocols for the treatment of bone and soft-tissue tumours using MRgHIFU. To support clinical efforts, I have developed a preclinical research program to investigate bone heating with MRgHIFU computationally and in models. In addition, I am investigating MRgHIFU applications in the brain (stroke and epilepsy), in abdominal organs, in musculoskeletal tissues, and in fetal and placental medicine. To support these projects, I have been developing real time algorithms to suppress motion artifacts from MRI thermal images and to measure acoustic radiation force dynamically. In collaboration with industry, we are also developing robotic MRgHIFU platforms that will be dedicated for non-invasive treatment of newborns and babies in utero.