The La Jolla project will advance sonogenetics – using ultrasound to control cells – as a noninvasive therapeutic for many conditions.

Salk Institute scientist Sreekanth Chalasani, PhD, has received an award of up to $41.3 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The funding, doled out in phases according to milestones achieved, will allow Chalasani and his team to transform his lab’s sonogenetics discovery, the use of ultrasound to control cell behavior, into new therapies for a number of human conditions like peripheral neuropathies.

Sonogenetics is an emerging approach to therapeutics that allows for noninvasive control of specific cell types through the use of ultrasound-responsive proteins.

Chalasani’s ARPA-H award will support his pioneering work in the field with a multi-institution collaboration focused on developing core biological tools, preclinical evidence and more to advance sonogenetics into human clinical trials.

Chalasani’s group first identified a protein in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans that makes cells sensitive to low-frequency ultrasound in 2015; the team was able to add the protein to other C elegans cells to activate them with ultrasound wave bursts.

The $41.3 million award is a “major step toward a long-held goal” to provide therapy without drugs, Chalasani said in a press release.

“We are building a platform that pairs engineered ultrasound-sensitive proteins with wearable ultrasound technology, which, unlike conventional pharmaceutical treatments, could let us treat conditions with cellular and temporal control.”