Sensing ultrasound localization microscopy (sULM)

! POSITION FILLED !


Download the internship proposal

Type of internship

Master’s Thesis Internship / Final-Year Engineering School Internship

Internship date or duration

6-month internship starting early 2026

Context

In 2010, the field of ultrasound imaging achieved a significant breakthrough in resolution with the advent of super-resolution ultrasound (ULM) [Couture et al., 2010]. ULM is a super-resolution ultrasound imaging technique that relies on tracking microbubbles circulating within blood vessels. These microbubbles are widely used in clinical settings as ultrasound contrast agents. A tenfold resolution improvement beyond the physical diffraction limit was demonstrated in vivo using a preclinical rat brain model [Errico et al., 2015]. This discovery laid the foundation for a new field of research [Couture et al., 2018] and enabled the implementation of ULM in various clinical studies.

More recently, we introduced super-resolution ultrasound imaging using micrometric sensors (sensing ULM, or sULM), which allows for the classification of individual microbubble behavior independently of their motion. This advancement facilitates the observation of local forces and the anatomy of microcirculation.

3D sensing Ultrasound Localization microscopy of rat kidney in-vivo

3D sensing Ultrasound Localization microscopy of rat kidney in-vivo (Chabouh et al., 2023)

This approach requires the ability to measure microbubble positions at the micrometric scale, as well as other characteristics of their echo signals. Using this technique, we successfully visualized glomeruli in the human kidney in 2D (Denis et al., 2023) and in the rat kidney in 3D (Chabouh et al., 2023).

Super-resolution ultrasound of the human kidney using the sULM technique

Super-resolution ultrasound of the human kidney using the sULM technique (Denis et al. 2023)

During this internship, we aim to identify new biomarkers using clinical 2D and 3D kidney imaging data.

Missions

  • The intern will be tasked with the following:
  • Understanding the acquisition and post-processing pipelines for generating 3D ULM images.
  • Identifying new microbubble profiles.
  • Expanding the range of echo parameters from microbubbles considered in 3D ULM.
  • Identify new biomarkers
  • Defining novel forms of sULM imaging

Required Skills

  • Theoretical and practical knowledge in ultrasonography and signal processing.
  • Theoretical and practical background in biomedical engineering.
  • Proficiency in written and spoken English for scientific communication.
  • Willingness to adapt to diverse research environments (e.g., medical imaging laboratories) and interdisciplinary fields (acoustics, biomedical, clinical research).
  • Strong interest in applied research.

Note: Mastery of all listed skills is not required.

Compensation

Internship remuneration

References

Chabouh, G., Denis, L., Bodard, S., Lager, F., Renault, G., chavignon, A., & couture, O. (2023). Whole organ volumetric sensing Ultrasound Localization Microscopy for characterization of kidney structure. bioRxiv, 2023-08.

Errico, C., Pierre, J., Pezet, S., Desailly, Y., Lenkei, Z., Couture, O., & Tanter, M. (2015). Ultrafast ultrasound localization microscopy for deep super-resolution vascular imaging. Nature, 527(7579), 499-502.

Couture, O., Hingot, V., Heiles, B., Muleki-Seya, P., & Tanter, M. (2018). Ultrasound localization microscopy and superresolution: A state of the art. IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, 65(8), 1304-1320.

Denis, L., Bodard, S., Hingot, V., Chavignon, A., Battaglia, J., Renault, G., … & Couture, O. (2023). Sensing ultrasound localization microscopy for the visualization of glomeruli in living rats and humans. Ebiomedicine, 91.

Contact

Olivier Couture – olivier.couture[at]sorbonne-universite.fr
Jean-Baptiste Deloges – jean-baptiste.deloges[at]sorbonne-universite.fr