Ying Meng

At A Glance

• We are a multidisciplinary lab investigating the use of focused ultrasound to treat cancers of the brain and peripheral nervous system using multimodal techniques such as neuroimaging and biomarker analysis
• We conduct both clinical and preclinical studies in our lab to better evaluate the safety and efficacy of focused ultrasound in neuro-oncology
• We leverage tissue clearing techniques to understand the spatial heterogeneity within human brain tumour specimens
• We apply liquid biopsy techniques to blood and CSF samples collected after focused ultrasound to improve cancer diagnosis and monitoring strategies

Short Bio

Dr. Ying Meng is a neurosurgeon-scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. She is appointed within the Institute of Medical Sciences and Department of Medical Biophysics. Her research focuses on neuro-oncology, neuroscience, and advancing non-invasive diagnostic techniques such as MRI and minimally invasive surgical techniques such as focused ultrasound. Her research includes spatial histology and neuroimaging studies. She received her Ph.D. in focused ultrasound and her post-graduate medical degree in neurosurgery at the University of Toronto. She also completed her fellowship in stereotactic radiosurgery from NYU Langone Health. She has made substantial contributions to advancing focused ultrasound research for patients with brain tumours and other challenging neurological disorders such as brain metastases and neurodegenerative diseases.

Research Synopsis

Our research investigates the use of focused ultrasound to treat brain tumours and other neurological disorders including brain metastases and neurodegenerative disease through drug delivery modulation and thermoablation. We have played a pivotal role in translating focused ultrasound from preclinical models to first-in-human trials.  

We leverage our expertise in neuroimaging and spatial histology to evaluate and predict patient outcomes through histopathological and blood biomarker analysis. We are interested in using focused ultrasound to improve blood-based biomarker detection to minimize the need of invasive surgical procedures for patient monitoring and diagnosis. In addition, our lab is working to adapt focused ultrasound technology to other tumour types to broaden the scope of this innovative technology.

Recent Publications

1. Woodworth GF, … Meng Y, et al. Microbubble-enhanced transcranial focused ultrasound with temozolomide for patients with high grade glioma (BT008NA): a multicenter, open-label, phase 1/2 trial. Lancet Oncol. Dec 2025. Doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(25)00492-9.
2. Woodworth GF, … Meng Y, et al. Acoustic emissions dose and spatial control of blood-brain barrier opening with focused ultrasound. Device (2025), doi:10.1016/j.device.2025.100894.
3. Meng Y, Tsang DS, Bernstein K, et al. Outcomes after hypofractionated radiosurgery for large and or critically located meningiomas from two centers. Neurosurgery. Oct 2025, doi: 10.1227/neu.0000000000003809.
4. Meng Y, Lee M, Berger A, et al. Understanding permeability changes in vestibular schwannomas as part of the dynamic response to radiosurgery using golden-angle radial sparse parallel imaging. Neurosurgery, doi: 10.1227/neu.0000000000003288.
5. Meng Y, Bernstein K, Mashiach E, et al. Outcomes of radiosurgery for WHO grade 2 meningiomas: the role of Ki-67 index in guiding the tumor margin dose. Neurosurgery, doi: 10.1227/neu.0000000000003255.
6. Meng Y, Santhumayor BA, Mashiach E, et al. Integral dose or mean dose of predicting radiosurgery response in patients with trigeminal neuralgia: targeting the narrowest part of the nerve. Neurosurgery, doi: 10.1227/neu.0000000000003145.
7. Meng Y, Goubra M, Rabin JS, et al. Blood-brain barrier opening of the default mode network in Alzheimer's disease with magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound. Brain, March 2023; doi: 10.1093/brain/awac459.
8. Meng Y, Pople C, Huang Y, et al. Putaminal rGCase delivery with MR-guided focused ultrasound in Parkinson’s disease: a phase I study. Movement Disorders, October 2022; doi: 10.1002/mds.29190.
9. Meng Y, Pople CB, Suppiah S, et al. MR-guided focused ultrasound liquid biopsy enriches circulating biomarkers in patients with brain tumors. Neuro Oncol, Oct 2021; doi: 10.1093/neuonc/noab057.
10. Meng Y, Reilly RM, Pezo RC, et al. MR-guided focused ultrasound enhances delivery of trastuzumab to Her2-positive brain metastases. Science Translational Medicine, October 2021; doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abj4011.
11. Meng Y, Hynynen K, Lipsman N. Focused ultrasound in the brain: current and emerging clinical applications from ablation to drug delivery. Nature Reviews Neurology, January 2021; doi: 10.1038/s41582-020-00418-z.
12. Meng Y*, Abrahao A*, Heyn C et al. Glymphatics visualization after focused ultrasound induced BBB opening in humans. Ann Neurol, September 2019. doi: 10.1002/ana.25604. *co-first authors
13. Meng Y, MacIntosh BJ, Shirzadi Z, et al. Resting state functional connectivity changes after MR-guided focused ultrasound mediated blood-brain barrier opening in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. NeuroImage, October 2019.
14. Lipsman N, Meng Y, Bethune A, et al. Blood-brain barrier opening in patients with Alzheimer’s disease using MR-guided focused ultrasound. Nat Commun., July 2018;9(1):2336

Graduate Students

TBD