Tali Ilovitsh, PhD

About the Investigator:

Dr. Ilovitsh is a Senior Lecturer at Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. Her work focuses on advancing ultrasound imaging and therapy technologies for biomedical applications. She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Bar-Ilan University, and completed her postdoctoral research at UC Davis and Stanford University School of Medicine, specializing in medical acoustics. Dr. Ilovitsh’s current research aims to establish crucial tools for brain and cancer therapy, including noninvasive surgery, drug delivery, and opening the blood-brain barrier.

About the Research:

This research study targets glioblastoma (or GBM), the most aggressive brain cancer with a grim survival rate of just 14 months post-diagnosis. The aim is to revolutionize brain cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring using a noninvasive liquid biopsy. Traditional surgical biopsies are risky, and current blood plasma biopsies are limited by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which restricts crucial biomarkers from entering the bloodstream.
Dr. Ilovitsh’s new method will employ focused ultrasound (FUS) and nanobubbles (NB) to temporarily disrupt the BBB, allowing brain and tumor biomarkers to be released into the blood. This innovative approach, known as sonobiopsy, integrates blood analysis with BBB disruption, in order to create a minimally invasive diagnostic tool.

The Ilovitsh team will use advanced mouse models of high-grade gliomas to refine the FUS technique and ensure effective biomarker release. Their ultimate goal is to improve diagnosis and enhance molecular understanding, which should lead to new targeted treatments that will reduce the risks associated with invasive brain biopsies and improve patient outcomes.