BME Seminar: Terry Matsunaga
Terry Matsunaga, Professor of Medical Imaging with an adjunct appointment in Biomedical Engineering
“Microbubbles and Phase-Change Contrast Agents: Fairly Simple Ideas for Not So Simple Solutions”
Monday, September 13th, 2021
12:00-12:50 pm, Keating 103
Live Zoom: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/89538307506, Passcode: BearDown
(Instructor permission required for enrolled students to attend via Zoom)
Hosts: Dr. Beth Hutchinson and Dr. Russ Witte: hutchinsone@email.arizona.edu and rwitte@email.arizona.edu
ABSTRACT: Over the past two decades, microbubbles have been used as ultrasound contrast agents for echocardiography as well as for other vascular landmarks (i.e., liver, kidney). They are excellent ultrasound imaging agents by virtue of their ability to efficiently reflect (backscatter) ultrasound waves. Their size, (1 – 5 microns) makes them ideal for coursing freely through the vasculature with an optimal size to reflect sound. Thus, their being coined as vascular contrast agents. However, their benefits as vascular agents make them less than ideal as extravascular contrast agents. Using very simple principles, Dr. Matsunaga's lab was the first to develop a nanodroplet made from condensed microbubbles (phase-change contrast agents, PCCAs). These agents follow ideal gas law predictions and can be on the order of 100 nanometers. During this seminar, Dr. Matsunaga will discuss applications for microbubbles and also, the development of PCCAs for possible extravascular applications.
BIO: Terry Matsunaga is a professor (research scholar track) in Medical Imaging with an adjunct appointment in Biomedical Engineering. He received his A.A. degree from City College of San Francisco and an A.B. in Biochemistry from U.C. Berkeley. He then moved across the bay to study Pharmacy (Pharm.D) from UCSF. He then traveled to the University of Michigan to do a PGY1 year in Clinical Pharmacy under the guidance of Rich DeLeon. Although exciting, he still yearned to do research, so he returned to UCSF and received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry studying NMR and enzyme kinetics under George Kenyon, Ph.D. He followed this with an NIH post-doctoral fellowship in peptide chemistry and solution-phase structure determination at the University of Arizona under the guidance of Victor Hruby, Ph.D. He then went to the private sector for 16 years in Tucson where he was instrumental in developing a microbubble ultrasound contrast agent now FDA approved and sold under the name Definity. In 2007, Matsunaga followed his dream to work in academia at the University of Arizona developing targeted microbubble contrast agents and phase-change contrast agents for extravascular imaging. He also helps teach BME 522 with his faculty colleagues in Medical Imaging.
Persons with a disability may request a reasonable accommodation by contacting the Disability Resource Center at 621-3268 (V/TTY).