UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Bubbles in the blood: from the 'bends' to magic bullets

Dr Eleanor Stride (UCL Mechanical Engineering)

The presence of bubbles in the blood stream is normally considered to be highly undesirable. Celebrated as the undetectable murder weapon in the plots of 1930s detective novels, they certainly represent an all too real hazard for deep sea divers and astronauts. There are, however, a rapidly growing number of biomedical applications in which bubbles can offer significant benefits. In this talk Eleanor Stride will describe how bubbles have transformed the state of the art in ultrasound imaging and are emerging as powerful therapeutic tools in treatments for major diseases including stroke and cancer.