Applications are invited for a fully funded four-year PhD programme to develop a High Intensity Focused Ultrasound system and treatment planning technique
Background
High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a non-ionising, non-invasive cancer treatment used for treating breast and prostate cancer, amongst other disease. It works by employing focused ultrasound waves to heat and destroy tumours, by causing coagulative necrosis. HIFU therapy can thus represent an alternative to radiotherapy. Through precisely targeting diseased tissue with non-ionising radiation, HIFU avoids some of the side effects associated with ionising radiation in radiotherapy, inducing damage to the diseased tissue but sparing healthy tissue. HIFU is an emerging clinical technique with potential to be applied in many areas. Current clinical applications involve the manual contouring of the treatment area during the HIFU therapy sessions and a grid like approach to delivery of HIFU treatment beams, with no complex treatment planning performed. In prostate HIFU, a large section, and sometimes the entire gland, is treated, while in breast imaging the treatment can be restricted to less complex morphology due to such approaches. There has recently been a move in the research field towards numerical approaches to HIFU delivery to deal with some of these limitations, to optimise the approach to dose delivery and reduce damage to healthy tissue. There is potential to advance the use of HIFU in the clinic through the development of a more personalised approach to treatments. This will be achieved by developing predictive techniques for the acoustic, thermal and intended dose models in a novel robust treatment planning system.
Project Description
This PhD project will involve the development of a novel personalised targeted treatment planning technique for HIFU therapy. The project will involve 4 work packages.
- Development of an acoustic dataset from clinical images.
- Development of a HIFU simulation & treatment planning technique.
- Development of an experimental HIFU system at UCD.
- Validation of the treatment planning technique using an experimental HIFU system and phantom test objects.
Training
The PhD will be hosted in UCD School of Physics, a dynamic international school researching across many different areas of Physics. The PhD will be associated with the Centre for Physics in Health and Medicine, a multidisciplinary research environment which aims to lead the translation of fundamental physics into health and clinical applications. There is the option to enrol in a CAMPEP accredited PhD in Medical Physics, if of interest to applicants who have not undertaken a CAMPEP MSc in Medical Physics, although a standard PhD in Physics route is also available.
The student will gain a range of experience and skills throughout the project, including simulation and software development alongside the development of experimental systems and techniques. The student will additionally develop soft-skills, such as teamwork, writing and presentation skills, along with interacting with a wide network of researchers in Ireland, the UK and further afield.
Qualifications & Experience
Interested candidates should possess, or expect to receive, a 1st class or upper 2nd class degree (or equivalent) in Physics.
Supervision: Dr Aoife Ivory
Contact/Applications: For applications or queries please contact (opens in a new window)aoife.ivory@ucd.ie. To apply please submit a 1-page letter detailing interest and suitability for the project and a CV including 2 references.
Deadline: 13th February 2026
Start Date: Flexible depending on availability of the selected candidate.