Gas-filled structures and related compositions, methods and systems to image a target site
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsAnupama LAKSHMANAN, Arash FARHADI, Suchita P. NETY, Raymond W. BOURDEAU, Mikhail SHAPIRO
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Abstract
Gas vesicles, protein variants and related compositions methods and systems for singleplexed and/or multiplexed ultrasound imaging of a target site in which a gas vesicle provides contrast for the imaging which is modifiable by application of a selectable acoustic collapse pressure value of the gas vesicle.
Claims26
-36. (canceled)
A method to tune acoustic properties of a gas vesicle protein structure (GVPS) having a gas vesicle shell and a GvpC protein and exhibiting a GVPS ultrasound signal in response to a fundamental frequency at a set pressure, the method comprising:
- producing an engineered GVPS variant comprising
- (i) the gas vesicle shell, and
- (ii) either (a) a modified GvpC protein or (b) no GvpC protein;
- the engineered GVPS variant exhibiting a GVPS variant nonlinear ultrasound signal in response to the fundamental frequency at the set pressure, and
- the GVPS ultrasound signal is a GVPS ultrasound linear signal or a GVPS nonlinear ultrasound signal having a magnitude lower than the GVPS variant nonlinear ultrasound signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.