Joining our Lab

We are recruiting 3 PhD students now (see below) and will be recruiting 3 post-doctoral researchers soon. The post-doctoral positions will be for a lipid chemist, microfluidics expert, and a transducer/circuit engineer. We will advertise the post-doctoral roles in January 2025.

UK & International PhD Studentships

Stipend: £21,327 per annum with fees covered
Status: UK and international students
Start date: between 1 July and 1 October 2025
Duration: 4 years

Application deadline: 16 January (Round 1), 15 February (Round 2, if required)

These PhD Studentships are part of an Advanced Research + Invention Agency-funded project, subject to contract negotiations.

PhD Studentship 1 of 3:

Designing ultrasound pulse shapes for controlled drug delivery to the brain

Supervisors: James Choi (primary), Sam Au
Collaborators: Terry Matsunaga (University of Arizona)
Location: Department of Bioengineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London

Keywords: Neurotechnology, focused ultrasound, therapeutic ultrasound, acoustics, microbubbles, acoustic cavitation, computer simulations, signal processing, drug delivery, neurological diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders

The project: We seek a PhD student with a background in physics or engineering who we can project to become exceptional at computational and experimental work in acoustics and optics. The aim is to build a noninvasive technology that can safely deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). In previous studies, microbubbles were systemically administered and then driven into oscillations by ultrasound pulses. However, this has resulted in a heterogeneous and unpredictable drug distribution. In this project, the PhD student will design novel ultrasound pulses while a post-doc will engineer microbubbles. These pulses should drive the microbubbles in a deterministic manner, producing controlled drug delivery. This work involves designing pulses in computer simulations and then validating them in vitro and in ex vivo brain slices using high-speed optical microscopy.

PhD Studentship 2 of 3:

A multi-spectral focused ultrasound array – device design and algorithm development

Supervisors: James Choi (primary)
Collaborators: Timothy Hall (University of Michigan), Antonios Pouliopoulos (King’s College London)
Location: Department of Bioengineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London

Keywords: Neurotechnology, focused ultrasound, therapeutic ultrasound, acoustics, microbubbles, acoustic cavitation, computer simulations, wave propagation, beam formation, imaging, signal processing, drug delivery, neurological diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders

The project: We seek a PhD student with a background in physics or engineering, who has a strong computational skillset. This student will design a device and algorithms that can focus an ultrasound beam across the human skull while simultaneously imaging the procedure. This involves creating the device on a computer and simulating the emission and reception of ultrasound using a wave propagation toolbox (k-wave). This work involves coding, mathematics, and algorithm development; and experimental work to validate the simulations. The devices and algorithms designed by you will be built by a post-doctoral research associate with expertise in transducers and circuits. Together, you will be creating next generation noninvasive microsurgical devices.

PhD Studentship 3 of 3:

Mosaic neuropharmacology with focused ultrasound

Supervisors: Andriy Kozlov (primary), James Choi, Sophie Morse
Lab link: https://www.kozlovlab.com/
Location: Department of Bioengineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London

Keywords: Neurotechnology, focused ultrasound, acoustic cavitation, neural plasticity, neural circuits, neuroscience, drug delivery, neurological diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders, auditory cortex

The project: We are looking for a PhD student with a background in neuroscience, physics, or engineering, who is passionate about tackling fundamental neuroscience challenges and eager to develop expertise in in vivo electrophysiology combined with focused ultrasound for drug delivery. The student will be operating a novel focused ultrasound device to manipulate neural circuits in vivo.

The Research Programme

These 3 PhD studentships will fit within a larger research programme involving 8 principal investigators and 4 post-doctoral researchers from Imperial College London, King’s College London, University of Arizona, and the University of Michigan.

The programme aims to build a noninvasive technology for precisely delivering distinct drugs to targeted brain regions with exceptional spatial and temporal control. Our approach will engineer particles capable of carrying drug payloads that release only in response to specific remote signals. Furthermore, we will develop a device to direct these signals to specific brain regions, enabling precise targeting. We will validate this platform in rats and rabbits, demonstrating the controlled release of multiple drugs to different areas of the brain. Using these technical innovations, we will perform "mosaic neuropharmacology"—a novel method for manipulating neural circuits across the brain noninvasively in both space and time. This platform will represent the most advanced tool for brain-targeted material delivery, offering tremendous potential for neuroscientists and neurologists to explore and treat neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders more effectively.

The Motivation

Neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders account for 21% of the global disease burden, surpassing all other health condition. Growing evidence suggests that many of these disorders stem from abnormalities in neural circuits—complex networks of neurons that communicate across various regions of the brain. These circuits are composed of diverse cell types, each contributing to the brain's overall function. When these circuits malfunction, the result can be significant cognitive, emotional, sensory, or motor impairments, underscoring the complexity of these disorders and the challenges in treating them.

Instead of viewing conditions like depression, epilepsy, or post-traumatic stress disorder as isolated brain malfunctions, we now recognize them as disruptions in specific neural circuits. These disruptions may occur between distinct brain regions or within more localized networks. Consequently, there is a critical need for precision neurotherapeutic technologies capable of targeting neural circuits at the cellular level across different brain regions. Such tools would open the door to innovative interventions that modulate or repair dysfunctional circuits, offering improved outcomes for patients affected by brain disorders.

Drugs remain one of the most powerful therapeutic tools, offering cell- and function-specific effects on neuronal populations, making them among the most targeted and adaptable forms of intervention. However, the challenge lies in delivering these drugs to specific brain regions with both spatial and temporal precision. Current invasive methods can achieve targeted delivery, but come with significant side effects, limiting their use in treating brain diseases.

Current Technology

We’ve developed a FUS technology that can produce controlled transport of drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). We showed that by using ultrashort ultrasound pulses (5 cycles) administered at a rapid rate, we can transport drugs across the BBB (Morse et al, Radiology 2019). We’ve shown that the transport occurs within 10 minutes of the ultrasound being turned off, after which, the BBB is closed (Figure 1). Furthermore, we observed no bleeding, no damage, and no histological difference between treated and untreated regions.

Next Steps

We will build on our progress by achieving greater temporal control of drug transport across the BBB and by introducing a new selection technology for triggering which drug is delivered. This would be the safest and most advanced noninvasive platform for delivering material in the brain, one that determines not only where material is delivered but when it is delivered; and one where you can also select which material is delivered to a specific place and time.

Facilities and Resources

The Laboratory

We are equipped to run experiments at multiple levels:

• Physics

• Phantoms (eg, hydrogels)

• In vitro (eg, cell cultures, ex vivo human skulls)

• In vivo

We design and manufacture our own ultrasound emitters and receivers. We create our microbubbles in-house. Some of the equipment we have include:

• Emitters and receivers: 16 single-element transducers (0.5, 1, 5, and 7.5 MHz), a linear imaging array, a 256-element therapeutic ultrasound array

• Multi-element array manufacturing facilities

• Microbubble manufacturing setup

• Signal generators, power amplifiers, filters, scopes, etc.

• Optical microscopes with high frame rate cameras

• 3D printer (FormLabs 3+)

• Experimental water tanks

• Basic life sciences equipment

Department Facilities

We also have access to all shared Department facilities including:

• Histology Room

• Tissue Culture Room

• Microscopy Suite (including confocal microscopy)

• Electronics Workshop

• Machine Workshop and 3D Printing Facilities

• IVIS systems

Collaborators’ Facilities

• 2-photon microscopes (for in vitro and in vivo use)

• Verasonics imaging engines (2 systems)

• Nanoindentation systems

• In vitro brain slice models

• 9Tesla MRI scanners