Introduction

Main affiliation
Assistant Professor, Radiology, Clinical Neurosciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
Hotchkiss Brain Institute

​Other affiliations:
Adjunct Professor, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Lakehead University

​Welcome to my personal webpage. In this site you will find information of the research conducted at the Neuromodulation Focused Ultrasound  (NeuroFUS) Laboratory.  The NeroFUS laboratory is located at the University of Calgary and Hotchkiss Brain Institute.  Please feel free to contact me using this form for inquiries and opportunities for graduate studies.
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NeuroFUS lab and guest (Bingbing Cheng from Dr. Pike's lab)  From left to right, back: Hiten Mahalwar, Satyakam Sahoo,
​Jak Loree-Spacek, Sam Pichardo, Nathan Meulenbroek, Shirshak Shrestha, Sagid Delgado
Front: Jacqueline Seal, Alexia Vanson, Chenchen Bing, Bingbing Cheng.
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NeuroFUS lab and guests (Laura Curiel and Teresa Krasnichuk) in our first team hiking trip to the Rockies (Canmore area) on July 13th, 2019. From left to right: Sam Pichardo, Laura Curiel, Jak Loree-Spacek, Maryam Siddiqui, Shirshak Shrestha, Alexia Vanson, Nathan Meulenbroek, Satyakam Sahoo, Teresa Krasnichuk and Chris Krasnichuk.

Current students/staff

Jak Loree-Spacek (M.Sc., Biomed Eng.)
Aidan Johnson (Undergrad, (Engineering intern)
Raya Sabah (Undegrad, summer student)
Shirshak Shrestha (Ph.D, Biomed Eng.)
Nathan Meulenbroek ( Phys/Comp. Sc)
Sagid Delgado (PDF)
Jake Hesselink (M.Sc., Biomed Eng.)
Chenchen Bing (Research Associate)
Bingbing Cheng (PostDoc, in co-supervision with Dr. Bruce Pike)

Previous students/staff

Chris Krasnichuk (Co-Op, Elec. Eng)
Andrew Drainville (Ph.D. Biotechnology)
Maryam Siddiqui (M.Sc., Biomed Eng.)
Alexia Vanson (Summer undergrad, Soft. Eng.)
Satyakam Sahoo (Summer undergrad, Soft. Eng.)
​Jacqueline Seal (high school intern)
Hiten Mahalwar (high school intern)
​Alan Marvin Coreas (undergraduate, Electrical Engineering)
Craig Macsemchuk (undergraduate, Electrical Engineering)
Hojo Dureenbileg (undergraduate, Geomatics Engineering)
​Matthew MacDonnald (M.Sc, Electrical Engineering)
​Steven Engler (Undergraduate, Computer Science)
Marjorie Tramier (Undergraduate, Systems Engineering)
​Rafael Ramos Celestino Silva (Undergraduate, Electrical Engineering,)
Jeremy Tan (Intern, M.Sc Bioengineering)
Iago Rio Silva Santo (undergrad)
Jon Kivinen (M.Sc.)
Laure-Annais Channel (undergrad)
Guillaume Bouchoux (undergrad)
​Elisa Cepeda (M.Sc,)
Lucie Foncin (undergrad)
Carlos Moreno (M.Sc.)
Alexandre Picard (undergrad)
Dexter Hobson (M. Sc.)
Birgit Rieck (PDF)
Tony Sinclair (research engineer)
Steven Engler (undergrad)
Sandra Diaz (M.Sc.)
David Bates (M.Sc.)
Benjamin Zaporzan (undergrad)
_

Students' news

March 9th, 2020. Andrew's paper selected as one of the JASA technical highlights of 2019
Congratulations to Andrew, as his paper on the superposition method was selected by the JASA Editorial team as one of the Technical Highlights of 2019.

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Dec 16th, 2019. New PhD in the family
 Robert Andrew Drainville defended successfully his PhD thesis in Biotechnology "The Principle of Superposition in Viscoelastic Finite Difference Methods". Congrats to Andrew for a well deserved end of his hard work.
Nov 2019. BrainHack Western 2019
Congratulations to Jak Loree-Spacek and his team for winning the "Best Open Science Project" in the BrainHack Western 2019 organized by University of Western Ontario, in London, ON, from Nov 13-15, 2019.

Recent publications

  1. Drainville A, Curiel L, Pichardo S. Superposition method for modelling boundaries between media in viscoelastic finite difference time domain simulations. Appeared online in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 2019.
  2. Mazerolle EL, Seasons G, Warwaruk-Rogers R, Romo P, Nordal R, Sevick R, Martino D, Pichardo S,  Kiss Z, Pike GB.  Focused Ultrasound Resolves Persistent Radiosurgery Related Change in a Patient with Tremor.  Radiology Case Reports. 2019.  1233-1236.
  3. Tung, S., Fahy, A.S., Lamberti-Pasculli, M., Waspe, A.C., Pichardo, S. and Gerstle, J.T., 2019. Magnetic Resonance–guided High-intensity Focused Ultrasound (MRgHIFU) Virtual Treatment Planning for Abdominal Neuroblastoma Utilizing Retrospective Diagnostic 3D CT Images. Journal of pediatric hematology/oncology, 41(7), pp.e443-e449.
  4. Beserra A, Pichardo S, Kisselgoff D, Peeva V, Curiel L. Targeting feasibility evaluation of magnetic resonance- guided focused ultrasound in the management of osteomyelitis: A virtual treatment planning study in 75 patients. International Journal of Hyperthermia, 36(1), 1012-1023
  5. Seasons G, Mazerolle EL, Sankar T, Pichardo S,  Martino D, Kiss Z, Pike GB. Predicting High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy Lesions Using Magnetic Resonance Thermometry and 3D Gaussian Modelling.  Accepted in Medical Physics.  Oct 2019
  6. Christoffersen C., Ngo T, Song R, Zhou Y, Pichardo S, Curiel L. (2019). Quasi Class-DE Driving of HIFU Transducer Arrays. IEEE transactions on biomedical circuits and systems, 13(1), 214-224.
  7. Tan J, Mougenot C, Pichardo S, Drake J. M., and Waspe A. C.. 2018, Motion compensation using principal component analysis and projection onto dipole fields for abdominal magnetic resonance thermometry. Magnetic resonance in medicine, 81(1), 195-207. 
  8. Abraham CB, Loree-Spacek J, Drainville RA, Pichardo S, Curiel L. (2018). Development of custom RF coils for use in a small animal platform for magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound hyperthermia compatible with a clinical MRI scanner. International Journal of Hyperthermia, 35(1), 348-360.
  9. Hosseini B, Mougenot C, Pichardo S, Constanciel E, Drake J, Stockie J. (2018). A Bayesian approach for energy-based estimation of acoustic aberrations in high intensity focused ultrasound treatment. Accepted in Communications in Computational Physic
  10. Hudson TJ, Looi T, Pichardo S, Amaral J, Temple M, Drake J. M. and Waspe A. C.. 2017, Simulating Thermal Effects of MR-guided Focused Ultrasound in Cortical Bone and its Surrounding Tissue. Medical Physics. 45(2), pp. 506-519
  11. Pichardo, S, Moreno-Hernández, C, Drainville, AR, Sin, V, Curiel, L and Hynynen, K. A viscoelastic model for the prediction of transcranial ultrasound propagation: application for the estimation of shear acoustic properties in the human skull. Physics in Medicine and Biology. 2017 Aug 7;62(17):6938-6962.
  12. Price, K.D., Sin, V.W., Mougenot, C., Pichardo, S., Looi, T., Waspe, A.C. and Drake, J.M., 2016. Design and validation of an MR-conditional robot for transcranial focused ultrasound surgery in infants. Medical Physics, 43(9), pp.4983-4995.
  13. Mougenot, C., Pichardo, S., Engler, S., Waspe, A., Colas, E.C. and Drake, J.M., 2016. A rapid magnetic resonance acoustic radiation force imaging sequence for ultrasonic refocusing. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 61(15), p.5724.
  14. Chu, W, Staruch, RM, Pichardo, S, Tillander, M, Köhler, MO, Huang, Y, Ylihautala, M, McGuffin, M, Czarnota, G and Hynynen K. Magnetic Resonance-Guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Hyperthermia for Recurrent Rectal Cancer: MR Thermometry Evaluation and Preclinical Validation. International Journal Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics. 2016 Jul 15;95(4):1259-67
  15. Lee J, Farha G, Poon I, Karam I, Higgins K, Pichardo S, Hynynen K, Enepekides D. Magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound combined with radiotherapy for palliation of head and neck cancer-a pilot study. Journal of Therapeutic Ultrasound. 2016 Apr 2;4
  16. Kivinen, J., Togtema, M., Mulzer, G., Choi, J., Zehbe, I., Curiel, L. and Pichardo, S., 2015. Sonoporation efficacy on SiHa cells in vitro at raised bath temperatures—experimental validation of a prototype sonoporation device. Journal of therapeutic ultrasound, 3(1), p.1.
  17. Pichardo, S., Silva, R.R., Rubel, O. and Curiel, L., 2015. Efficient Driving of Piezoelectric Transducers Using a Biaxial Driving Technique. PloS one, 10(9), p.e0139178.
  18. Christoffersen C, Wong W, Pichardo S, Togtema G, Curiel L.(2015). Class-DE Ultrasound Transducer Driver for HIFU Therapy. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems. PP(99) 
  19. Pichardo S, Köhler M, Lee J, Hynnyen, K.(2014). In vivo optimisation study for multi-baseline MR-based thermometry in the context of hyperthermia using MR-guided high intensity focused ultrasound for head and neck applications. International Journal of Hyperthermia, 30(8), 579-592.30(8): 578-592. 
  20. Rieck, B., Bates., D., Zhang, K., Escott, N. Mougenot, C., Pichardo, S., Curiel, L. (2014). Focused ultrasound treatment of abscesses induced by methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Feasibility study in a mouse model. Medical Physics. 41(6): 063301.
  21. Ahmed S J, Pichardo S, Curiel L, Rubel O. (2014). First-principle modelling of the ferroelectric switching in BaTiO3: concurrent switching versus domain wall motion.Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering 22, no. 5 (2014): 055014.22(5): 055014.
  22. Phenix, C., Togetma, M., Pichardo, S., Zehbe, I., Curiel, L. (2014). High intensity focused ultrasound technology, its scope and applications in therapy and drug delivery. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. 17(1): 136-153.
  23. Cole, J., Ahmed, S.J., Curiel, L. Pichardo, S. Rubel, O. (2014). Marble game with optimal ferroelectric switching. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter.26(13): 135901.
  24. Zaporzan B, Looi T, Waspe A, Mougenot C, Partanen A, Pichardo S. (2013). MatMRI and MatHIFU: Software toolboxes for real-time monitoring and control of MR-guided HIFU. J Therapeutic Ultrasound. 1: 7.
  25. Pichardo S , Kivinen J , Melodelima D , Curiel L. (2013). Suitability of a tumour-mimicking material for the evaluation of high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation under magnetic resonance guidance. Physics in medicine and biology. 58(7): 2163-2183.
  26. S.J. Ahmed, J. Kivinen, B. Zaporzan, L. Curiel, S. Pichardo, O. Rubel. (2013). BerryPI: A software for studying polarization of crystalline solids with WIEN2k density functional all-electron package. Computer Physics Communications. 184(3): 647-651.
  27. Curiel L, Hobson D, Chapelon JY, Pichardo S.(2013). High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Optimal Device Design for Targeted Prostate Cancer Treatment: A Numerical Study. Journal of Modern Physics. 4: 240-245.
  28. Pichardo S , Togtema M , Jackson R , Zehbe I , Curiel L. (2013). Influence of cell line and cell cycle phase on sonoporation transfection efficiency in cervical carcinoma cells under the same physical conditions.IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control. 60(2): 432-435.
  29. Togtema M , Pichardo S , Jackson R , Lambert PF , Curiel L , Zehbe I. (2012). Sonoporation delivery of monoclonal antibodies against human papillomavirus 16 E6 restores p53 expression in transformed cervical keratinocytes.PloS one. 7(11): e50730.
  30. Pichardo S , Sin VW , Hynynen K. (2011). Multi-frequency characterization of the speed of sound and attenuation coefficient for longitudinal transmission of freshly excised human skulls.Physics in medicine and biology. 56(1): 219-250.