Katherine Ferrara

Katherine Whittaker Ferrara is an American engineer who is a Professor of Radiology at Stanford University. Ferrara has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2014. She has pioneered the use of ultrasound to image cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Katherine Whittaker Ferrara
Ferrara with UC Davis Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal in 2018
Alma materUniversity of California, Davis
California State University
University of Pittsburgh
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Virginia
University of California, Davis
Stanford University
ThesisWideband strategies for blood velocity estimation using ultrasound (1989)

Early life and education

Ferrara grew up in Pennsylvania.[1] She originally thought she wanted to become a physical therapist.[1] She earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Pittsburgh. After earning her doctoral degree she joined General Electric, where she worked on early magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound technologies.[1] When General Electric moved from California to Milwaukee, Ferrara returned to academia.[1] She was a master's student at California State University, Sacramento, where she used microprocessors to synthesise speech.[2] Ferrara moved to the University of California, Davis for her gradaute research, where she developed ultrasound methods to measure blood velocity.[3][4] After graduating she worked as an associate professor at the California State University, Sacramento.

Research and career

Ferrara was appointed to the faculty at the University of Virginia in 1989. In 1998 Ferrara returned to the University of California, Davis. In 2000 Ferrara founded the University of California, Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering, supported by a $12 million award from the Whitaker Foundation.[5] When she stepped down as Head of Department in 2005, the new department had risen to the 23rd in the United States.[6] At University of California, Davis, her research considered cancer diagnosis and image-guided drug delivery.[7] Image-guided drug delivery makes use of medical imaging methods (including positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging) to target drug delivery.[7]

Her research crosses several themes, including immunotherapy,[8] molecular imaging,[9] ultrasound thermometry and image guided therapies. In particular, Ferrara has focussed on ultrasound therapy guided with magnetic resonance imaging, nanoparticle based cardiovascular imaging and image-guided drug delivery. A challenge in cancer therapeutics is that the treatments are often toxic, and getting high enough doses to diseased tissue can result in significant damage. To focus ultrasound for chemotherapy and immunotherapy Ferrara combines an annular array and Bruker MRI.[10]

Ferrara makes use of nanoparticle encapsulation and ultrasound to achieve high target-to-background imaging.[11] Alongside their work on cancer, the nanoparticles developed by Ferrara and co-workers can be used to image and deliver microRNA treatments for the treatment of damaged heart tissues.[12]

In 2018 Ferrar joined Stanford University as a Professor of Radiology.[4] She has extensively investigated the physics of microbubbles, which led her to believe that these may offer some therapeutics for ultrasound.[13][14] At Stanford Ferrara has explored the use of microbubbles injected with a therapeutic agent as a treatment for breast cancer, using ultrasound to selectively destroy the microbubbles (through resonance) when they reach the appropriate location.[15][16]

Awards and honours

Selected publications
  • Ferrara, Katherine; Pollard, Rachel; Borden, Mark (2007-08-15). "Ultrasound Microbubble Contrast Agents: Fundamentals and Application to Gene and Drug Delivery". Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering. 9 (1): 415–447. doi:10.1146/annurev.bioeng.8.061505.095852. ISSN 1523-9829. PMID 17651012.
  • Chomas, J.E.; Dayton, P.; Allen, J.; Morgan, K.; Ferrara, K.W. (2001). "Mechanisms of contrast agent destruction". IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control. 48 (1): 232–248. doi:10.1109/58.896136. ISSN 1525-8955. PMID 11367791. S2CID 10013402.
  • Qin, Shengping; Caskey, Charles F; Ferrara, Katherine W (2009-07-06). "Ultrasound contrast microbubbles in imaging and therapy: physical principles and engineering". Physics in Medicine and Biology. 54 (14): R27-57. doi:10.1088/0031-9155/54/14/c01. ISSN 0031-9155. PMC 2818980. PMID 19229096.

References
  1. "Investigator Profile: Kathy Ferrara, PhD - Focused Ultrasound Foundation". www.fusfoundation.org. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  2. Ferrara, Katherine Whittaker (1983). Implementation of speech synthesis using a microprocessor (Thesis). OCLC 10645282.
  3. Ferrara, K.W.; Zager, B.G.; Sokil-Melgar, J.B.; Silverman, R.H.; Aslanidis, I.M. (1996). "Estimation of blood velocity with high frequency ultrasound". IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control. 43 (1): 149–157. doi:10.1109/58.484474. ISSN 1525-8955. S2CID 12197215.
  4. "Katherine Ferrara's Profile | Stanford Profiles". profiles.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  5. Anonymous (2018-01-18). "Katherine Ferrara Receives Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal". Biomedical Engineering. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  6. "Katherine Ferrara". College of Engineering UC Davis. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  7. "Katherine Ferrara, Ph.D. » Engineering Diversity". Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  8. Kwferrar |. "Immunotherapy – Ferrara Lab". Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  9. Heidi |. "Molecular Imaging – Ferrara Lab". Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  10. Heidi |. "MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Therapy (MRgFUS) – Ferrara Lab". Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  11. Heidi |. "Image-Guided Drug Delivery in Cancer – Ferrara Lab". Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  12. Heidi |. "Translational Cardiovascular Nanomedicine – Ferrara Lab". Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  13. "Investigator Profile: Kathy Ferrara, PhD - Focused Ultrasound Foundation". www.fusfoundation.org. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  14. "Synthesis, a UC Davis Cancer Center Publication - Tiny bubbles: an engineer takes on cancer". health.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  15. ""Microbubbles" and ultrasound bombard cancer cells in mice". Scope. 2020-05-14. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  16. "Researchers destroy cancer cells with ultrasound treatment: Technique combines ultrasound application and tumor-targeted microbubbles that attach to cancer cells and explode". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  17. "Katherine Ferrara". UC Davis. 1999-10-20. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  18. "Katherine W. Ferrara, Ph.D. COF-0291 - AIMBE". Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  19. "AAAS Members Elected as Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  20. "IEEE Fellows of the UFFC Society". IEEE UFFC. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  21. "2012 Achievement Award of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society Katherine W. Ferrara". IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control. 60 (7): 1284. 2013-08-13. doi:10.1109/TUFFC.2013.2700. ISSN 1525-8955.
  22. "Society and Ultrasonics Awards". www.ieee.org. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  23. kwferrar (2018-02-14). "Katherine Ferrara". College of Biological Sciences. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  24. Anonymous (2014-02-06). "Katherine Ferrara Elected to National Academy of Engineering". Biomedical Engineering. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  25. "【20171108】IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Program--- Katherine Whittaker Ferrara----Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology". english.siat.cas.cn. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  26. "Dr. Ferrara Received 2019 AWIS Judith Pool Award". Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  27. AWIS, East Bay. "May 2019 Awards Brunch". East Bay AWIS. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  28. "World Molecular Imaging Society Concludes 2019 Annual Global Congress Featuring Gold Medal Award Winner and Molecular Imaging Pioneer". World Molecular Imaging Society. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  29. "IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award". www.ieee.org. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
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