Microbeads allow ultrasonic waves to stimulate cells more safely

Researchers at Duke University have discovered a way to enhance the effectiveness and safety of sonogenetics or ultrasonic modulation, emerging techniques that use sound waves to control the behavior of individual neurons or to promote tissue growth and wound healing in other cells. Ultrasonic therapy often uses targeted ultrasound waves to create cavitation bubbles—tiny balloons of rapidly oscillating air pockets that stretch nearby cell membranes when they burst. This stretching can activate calcium ion channels, causing a neuron to fire, or can signal the body's repair mechanisms to crank into overdrive. If a bubble is too big or too close, however, the technique can damage or destroy nearby cells. While this may be the desired result in applications such as cancer therapy, researchers of sonogenetics typically want to avoid damage. In a new study, biomedical engineers found that by attaching microscopic beads to receptors on the cell's surface, they can produce the technique's cell-stretching, calcium-releasing effects much more safely.