Eno Hysi

At a Glance

• Construct quantitative ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging toolboxes that can detect structural and functional aspects of organ injuries across multiple biological length-scales
• Develop motion corrected, high frequency, co-registered US and PA imaging for preclinical examinations of organ injury models in the kidney, liver, bladder and lungs
• Translate US and PA imaging biomarkers of organ injury to a variety of clinical specialties (nephrology, urology, oncology, cardiology, intensive care and surgery)
• Conduct clinical trials to demonstrate the feasibility and practical integration of these novel biomarkers into the conventional clinical workflow

Short Bio

Dr. Eno Hysi is the Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Imaging. He is also a Staff Scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science at St. Michael’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. A biomedical physicist by training, Dr. Hysi received his PhD from the Department of Physics at the Toronto Metropolitan University, graduating with two Gold Medals in 2020. During his PhD studies, Dr. Hysi was funded by a NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and his research focused on the development of photoacoustic biomarkers of cancer treatment response. Following his doctoral training, Dr. Hysi was recruited to St. Michael’s Hospital’s Division of Nephrology as a CIHR Banting and a Kidney Foundation of Canada KRESCENT Fellow. In collaboration with the Division of Urology, Dr. Hysi conducted the first-in-the-world clinical trial that explores how photoacoustic imaging innovations can be used to assess the quality of donated kidneys before transplant. This work was recognized with the 2021 John Charles Polanyi Prize in Physics. Dr. Hysi is the only simultaneous recipient of the prestigious Banting and KRESCENT Fellowships and a Polanyi Prize in the history of all three programs. To date, Dr. Hysi has accumulated over $2.4M in competitive research funding, as well as many accolades from the national and international research community.

Research Synopsis

The overarching goal of Dr. Hysi’s research program is the clinical translation of novel ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging that are capable of imaging a wide range of organ injuries. These types of organ injuries involve fibrosis (responsible for chronic diseases), ischemic reperfusion injuries (present during transplantation of kidneys and livers), acute respiratory distress syndrome (common in the intensive care unit), and microvascular injuries (occurring in diabetes). Dr. Hysi directs the Translational Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Imaging Laboratory (TUPIL) located at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science (KRCBS) at St. Michael’s Hospital. The KRCBS is located within the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and it is home to state-of-the-art facilities that enable the generation and translation of scientific discoveries to improve patient health in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment. Working alongside diverse teams of physicists, biologists and physician collaborators, members of TUPIL are focused on imaging advances that traverse both the preclinical and clinical domains.

Preclinical domain

The development of clinically translatable US and PA biomarkers requires investigations of in the fundamental biophysics of light and sound and their interplay across a diverse range of tissues. This is specifically important for the imaging of microscopically diffuse organ injuries affecting virtually every major organ. Dr. Hysi is interested in several unique aspects of preclinical US and PA imaging:

1. Constructing realistic computational models of tissue architecture that can facilitate the development of novel imaging algorithms through modeling of US and PA imaging physics
2. Testing the novel algorithms driven by computational modeling in a variety of preclinical models of organ injury such as ischemic reperfusion injury of the kidney and liver
3. Implementing respiratory motion correction algorithms that permit real-time, in-vivo imaging of small rodents that have developed a wide spectrum of kidney, liver, and lung injuries

Clinical domain

Working in close collaboration with clinicians across a diverse range of specialties at St. Michael’s Hospital, Dr. Hysi and his team aim to provide novel imaging solutions to address pressing clinical problems. This involves the adaptation of the biomarkers and techniques developed in the preclinical domain, in preparation for translation in the clinic. Dr. Hysi is specifically interested in translating US and PA imaging discoveries through conducting clinical trials on patient populations that would directly benefit from the implementation of these technologies. Examples of such trials include:

1. Developing intra- and post-operative US/PA imaging approaches that can assess the quality of kidney transplants at the time of surgery, predict delayed graft function and monitor the long term fibrotic injury
2. Developing wireless US imaging approaches that can be used to non-invasively assess the degree of intensive care-acquired muscle weakness  
3. Developing and validating US/PA imaging approaches that can monitor the degree of ischemic reperfusion injury in the liver and cutting-edge protective therapies
4. Developing bedside US/PA imaging probes to monitor structural and functional changes in lungs during acute respiratory distress syndrome
5. Developing super-resolution US/PA imaging of diabetic microvasculature to monitor complications of diabetes

Recent Publications

1. Photoacoustic imaging of metabolic activities across biological length scales
   G. Mankovskii and E Hysi (2024)
   Invited review – Physiology (in press)
2. Emerging medical imaging techniques for the assessment of delayed graft function: A narrative review
   E Hysi, H Kaur and A Young (2021)
   Invited review – Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease 8: 1-14
3. In vivo spectroscopic photoacoustic imaging and laser-induced nanoparticle vaporization for anti-HER2 breast cancer
   Y Wang, MN Fadhel, E Hysi, M Pasternak, K Sathiyamoorthy and MC Kolios (2021)
   Journal of Biophotonics 14: e20200099-1-13
4. Photoacoustic imaging of the human radial artery for the detection of red blood cell aggregation
   T-H Bok, E Hysi and MC Kolios (2021)
   Journal of Biomedical Optics 26(3): 036006, 1-14
5. A tutorial in photoacoustic microscopy and tomography signal processing methods
   E Hysi, MJ Moore, EM Strohm and MC Kolios (2021)
   Invited tutorial – Journal of Applied Physics 129(14): 141102-1-23
6. Imaging of renal fibrosis
   E Hysi and DA Yuen (2020)
   Invited review – Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension 29(6): 599-607
7. Photoacoustic imaging of kidney fibrosis for assessing pre-transplantation organ quality
   E Hysi, X He, MN Fadhel, T Zhang, A Krizova, M Ordon, M Farcas, K Pace, V Mintsopoulous, WL Lee, MC Kolios and DA Yuen (2020)
   The Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight 5(10): e136995-1-16
   Invited editorial feature in BioPhotonics Magazine written by E Hysi, DA Yuen and MC Kolios

8. Photoacoustic imaging biomarkers for monitoring biophysical changes during nanobubble-mediated radiation treatment
   E Hysi, MN Fadhel, Y Wang, JA Sebastian, A Giles, GJ Czarnota, AA Exner and MC Kolios (2020)
   Photoacoustics 20: 100201-1-12

9. Fluence-matching technique using photoacoustic radiofrequency spectra for improving estimates of oxygen saturation
   MN Fadhel, E Hysi, H Assi and MC Kolios (2020)
   Photoacoustics 19: 100182-1-12

10. Mean scatterer spacing estimation using cepstrum-based continuous wavelet transform
    R Nasr, O Falou, A Shahin, E Hysi, LA Wirtzfeld, ESL Berndl and MC Kolios (2020)
    IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, 67(6): 1118-1126

11. Use of photoacoustic imaging for monitoring vascular disrupting cancer treatments 
    MN Fadhel, S Appak-Baskoy, Y Wang, E Hysi, and MC Kolios (2020)
    Journal of Biophotonics 11: e2020000209-1-11 (featured as one of four November 2020 issue covers)

12. Insights into photoacoustic speckle and applications in tumor characterization
    E Hysi, MN Fadhel, MJ Moore, J Zalev, EM Strohm and MC Kolios (2019)
    |Photoacoustics 14: 37-48

Graduate Students

TBD