News — Charlottesville, VA – The Focused Ultrasound Foundation has received a pledge of $10 million in unrestricted funds from an anonymous donor to be matched 1:1 by 2022.
This pledge comes at a pivotal time for the Foundation and the focused ultrasound field. Despite the steady pace of research and application of the technology, every day that patient access to focused ultrasound is delayed translates to unnecessary death, disability and suffering for countless people worldwide.
The Foundation's annual budget is approximately $10 million, and this transformative gift will further accelerate the development and adoption of a game-changing technology. All donor contributions are now being matched dollar-for-dollar, thus doubling their impact, and allowing the Foundation to continue to fund research in a number of critical areas including:
- Brain disorders including glioblastoma, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, epilepsy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression
- Cancer immunotherapy
- Pancreatic cancer
- Pediatric disorders
- Veterinary indications
“We are profoundly grateful for this exceptional pledge as it will help us fulfill our mission with greater speed and accelerate important new treatment options to patients in need,” said Neal F. Kassell, MD, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “We hope this gift will encourage new donors to support our mission and inspire our longstanding donors to continue their commitment, which will now deliver twice the impact.”
About the Focused Ultrasound Foundation
The Focused Ultrasound Foundation was created to improve the lives of millions of people worldwide by accelerating the development of focused ultrasound, an early-stage noninvasive therapeutic technology with the potential to transform the treatment of many medical disorders. The Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that focused ultrasound finds its place as a mainstream therapy within years, not decades, and works to fund research, foster collaboration, and build awareness among patients and professionals. Since its establishment in 2006, it has become the largest non-governmental source of funding for focused ultrasound research.
About Focused Ultrasound
Multiple intersecting beams of ultrasound are directed and concentrated on a target; much like a magnifying glass can focus beams of light on a single point to burn a hole in a leaf. Where each individual beam passes through the tissue, there is no effect. But, at the focal point, the beams of ultrasound energy can produce many important biological effects. Today, focused ultrasound is approved in the United States to treat essential tremor, uterine fibroids, and the prostate, as well as reduce pain from bone metastases. The technology is also being studied for more than 90 other diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, hypertension, and tumors of the brain, liver, breast, and pancreas. Focused ultrasound has certain attributes that create the potential for a unique role in cancer immunotherapy when compared to the other modalities, and several preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that FUS can elicit an immune response.
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