Richard R. Bouchard, Ph.D.
Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging
About Dr. Bouchard
Today’s healthcare climate calls for medical technology that provides a safe, inexpensive, patient-specific, and point-of care diagnostic solution. Ultrasound-mediated imaging technologies, such as photoacoustic (PA), contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), or elasticity imaging, allow clinicians to probe a patient’s specific molecular composition, permit assessment of tissue viscoelasticity, or afford unprecedented contrast for real-time image-guided therapy. Ultrasound-mediated imaging solutions can be provided at a price point, convenience, and operating ease that permits bedside utilization or straightforward intraoperative integration. Consequently, Dr. Bouchard has focused his research program on clinically translatable photoacoustic-ultrasonic (PAUS), CEUS, and acoustic radiation force (ARF)-based elasticity imaging technologies. Specifically, Dr. Bouchard is investigating novel uses of these platforms in the detection, assessment, and treatment-monitoring of cancer and cardiac disease. To this end, Dr. Bouchard has invested considerable effort in development of quantitative imaging approaches for both endogenous (e.g., hemoglobin) and exogenous (e.g., molecularly targeted nanoparticles or phase-changing nanodroplets) in both tissue-mimicking phantom and preclinical (e.g., murine) models.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor, Department of Imaging Physics - Research, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Regular Member, The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston, Houston, TX
Research Interests
Clinical photoacoustic-ultrasonic (PAUS) and acoustic radiation force (ARF)-based elasticity imaging technologies
Preclinical (i.e., murine model) PAUS imaging of molecular (i.e., nanoscale) theranostic probes
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2010 | Duke University, Pratt School of Engineering, Durham, NC, USA, PHD, Biomedical Engineering |
| 2004 | Duke University, Pratt School of Engineering, Durham, NC, USA, BSE, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Cultural Anthropology |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Instructor, Department of Imaging Physics - Research, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2012 - 2013
Visiting Scholar, Department of Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 2011 - 2013
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2011 - 2012
Whitaker International Fellow, Department of Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, 2006 - 2007
Research Assistant, Duke University, Durham, NC, 2004 - 2010
Honors & Awards
| 2011 | Odyssey Fellowship, The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2006 | Whitaker International Fellowship |
| 2004 | James B. Duke Graduate Fellowship, Duke University |
| 2004 | National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship |
| 2004 | Pratt-Gardner Fellowship, Duke University |
| 2003 | Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society |
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Mitcham TM, Nevozhay D, Chen Y, Nguyen LD, Pinton GF, Lai SY, Sokolov KV, Bouchard RR. Effect of perfluorocarbon composition on activation of phase-changing ultrasound contrast agents. Med Phys 49(4):2212-2219, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35195908.
- Wood CA, Han S, Kim CS, Wen Y, Sampaio DRT, Harris JT, Homan KA, Swain JL, Emelianov SY, Sood AK, Cook JR, Sokolov KV, Bouchard RR. Clinically translatable quantitative molecular photoacoustic imaging with liposome-encapsulated ICG J-aggregates. Nat Commun 12(1):5410, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34518530.
- Paulsen SJ, Mitcham TM, Pan CS, Long J, Grigoryan B, Sazer DW, Harlan CJ, Janson KD, Pagel MD, Miller JS, Bouchard RR. Projection-based stereolithography for direct 3D printing of heterogeneous ultrasound phantoms. PLoS One 16(12):e0260737, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34882719.
- Muñoz NM, Dupuis C, Williams M, Dixon K, McWatters A, Avritscher R, Bouchard R, Kaseb A, Schachtschneider KM, Rao A, Sheth RA. Molecularly targeted photothermal ablation improves tumor specificity and immune modulation in a rat model of hepatocellular carcinoma. Commun Biol 3(1):783, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33335270.
- Changalvaie B, Han S, Moaseri E, Scaletti F, Truong L, Caplan R, Cao A, Bouchard R, Truskett TM, Sokolov KV, Johnston KP. Indocyanine Green J Aggregates in Polymersomes for Near-Infrared Photoacoustic Imaging. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 11(50):46437-46450, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31804795.
- Han S, Bouchard R, Sokolov KV. Molecular Photoacoustic Imaging with Ultra-small Gold Nanoparticles. Biomed Opt Express 10(7):3472-3483, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31360601.
- Wood C, Harutyunyan K, Sampaio DRT, Konopleva M, Bouchard R. Photoacoustic-based oxygen saturation assessment of murine femoral bone marrow in a preclinical model of leukemia. Photoacoustics 14:31-36, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31049286.
- Naser MA, Sampaio DRT, Munoz NM, Wood CA, Mitcham TM, Stefan W, Sokolov KV, Pavan TZ, Avritscher R, Bouchard RR. Improved photoacoustic-based oxygen saturation estimation with SNR-regularized local fluence correction. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 38(2):561-571, 2019. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30207951.
- Qiao Y, Gumin J, MacLellan CJ, Gao F, Bouchard R, Lang FF, Stafford RJ, Melancon MP. Magnetic resonance and photoacoustic imaging of brain tumor mediated by mesenchymal stem cell labeled with multifunctional nanoparticle introduced via carotid artery injection. Nanotechnology 29(16):165101, 2018. PMID: 29438105.
- Noh K, Mangala LS, Han HD, Zhang N, Pradeep S, Wu SY, Ma S, Mora E, Rupaimoole R, Jiang D, Wen Y, Shahzad MMK, Lyons Y, Cho M, Hu W, Nagaraja AS, Haemmerle M, Mak CSL, Chen X, Gharpure KM, Deng H, Xiong W, Kingsley CV, Liu J, Jennings N, Birrer MJ, Bouchard RR, Lopez-Berestein G, Coleman RL, An Z, Sood AK. Differential Effects of EGFL6 on Tumor versus Wound Angiogenesis. Cell Rep 21(10):2785-2795, 2017. PMID: 29212026.
- Mitcham T, Taghavi H, Long J, Wood C, Fuentes D, Stefan W, Ward J, Bouchard R. Photoacoustic-based sO2 estimation through excised bovine prostate tissue with interstitial light delivery. Photoacoustics 7:47-56, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28794990.
- Sivakumar B, Aswathy RG, Romero-Aburto R, Mitcham T, Mitchel KA, Nagaoka Y, Bouchard RR, Ajayan PM, Maekawa T, Sakthikumar DN. Highly versatile SPION encapsulated PLGA nanoparticles as photothermal ablators of cancer cells and as multimodal imaging agents. Biomater Sci 5(3):432-443, 2017. PMID: 28059418.
- Chen CT, Chen YC, Du Y, Han Z, Ying H, Bouchard RR, Hsu JL, Hsu JM, Mitcham TM, Chen MK, Sun HL, Chang SS, Li D, Chang P, DePinho RA, Hung MC. A tumor vessel-targeting fusion protein elicits a chemotherapeutic bystander effect in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. American Journal Cancer Research 7(3):657-672, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28401019.
- Poulose AC, Veeranarayanan S, Mohamed MS, Aburto RR, Mitcham T, Bouchard RR, Ajayan PM, Sakamoto Y, Maekawa T, Kumar DS. Multifunctional Cu2-xTe Nanocubes Mediated Combination Therapy for Multi-Drug Resistant MDA MB 453. Sci Rep 6:35961, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27775048.
- Sheikh Mohamed M, Poulose AC, Veeranarayanan S, Romero Aburto R, Mitcham T, Suzuki Y, Sakamoto Y, Ajayan PM, Bouchard RR, Yoshida Y, Maekawa T, Sakthi Kumar D. Plasmonic Fluorescent CdSe/Cu2S Hybrid Nanocrystals for Multichannel Imaging and Cancer Directed Photo-Thermal Therapy. Nanoscale 8(15):7876-88, 2016. PMID: 26584976.
- Gray JP, Dana N, Dextraze KL, Maier F, Emelianov S, Bouchard RR. Multi-Wavelength Photoacoustic Visualization of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Lesions. Ultrason Imaging 38(1):96-112, 2016. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26149314.
- Mitcham T, Dextraze K, Taghavi, H, Melancon M, Bouchard R. Photoacoustic imaging driven by an interstitial irradiation source. Photoacoustics 3(2), 2015.
- Poulose AC, Veeranarayanan S, Mohamed MS, Nagaoka Y, Romero Aburto R, Mitcham T, Ajayan PM, Bouchard RR, Sakamoto Y, Yoshida Y, Maekawa T, Kumar DS. Multi-stimuli responsive Cu2S nanocrystals as trimodal imaging and synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy agents. Nanoscale 7(18):8378-88, 2015. PMID: 25797920.
- Zhou M, Singhana B, Liu Y, Huang Q, Mitcham T, Wallace M, Stafford RJ, Bouchard R, Melancon MP. Photoacoustic-and Magnetic Resonance-Guided Photothermal Therapy and Tumor Vasculature Visualization Using Theranostic MAgnetic Gold Nanoshells. Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology 11(8):1442-1450, 2015.
- Bouchard R, Sahin O, Emelianov S. Ultrasound-guided Photoacoustic Imaging: current state and future development. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 61(3):450-466, 2014. PMID: 24569250.
- Dana N, Di Biase L, Natale A, Emelianov S, Bouchard R. In-vitro Photoacoustic Visualization of Myocardial Ablation Lesions. Heart Rhythm 11(1):150-7, 2014. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24080065.
- Romero-Aburto R, Narayanan TN, Nagaoka Y, Hasumura T, Mitcham TM, Fukuda T, Cox PJ, Bouchard RR, Maekawa T, Kumar DS, Torti SV, Mani SA, Ajayan PM. Fluorinated graphene oxide; a new multimodal material for biological applications. Adv Mater 25(39):5632-7, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24038195.
- Candelaria RP, Hwang L, Bouchard RR, Whitman GJ. Ultrasound and Breast Cancer: Diagnosis, Staging, and Biopsy. Semin Ultrasound CT MR 3(34):213-225, 2013. PMID: 23768888.
- Mitcham T, Homan K, Frey W, Chen YS, Emelianov S, Hazle J, Bouchard R. Modulation of Photoacoustic Signal Generation from Metallic Surfaces. J Biomed Opt 18(5):56008, 2013. PMID: 23652344.
- Hsu SJ, Byram BC, Bouchard RR, Dumont DM, Wolf PD, Trahey GE. Acoustic radiation force impulse imaging of mechanical stiffness propagation in myocardial tissue. Ultrason Imaging 34(3):142-58, 2012. PMID: 22972912.
- Cook JR, Bouchard RR, Emelianov SY. Tissue-mimicking phantoms for photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging. Biomed Opt Express 2(11):3193-206, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 22076278.
- Su JL, Bouchard RR, Karpiouk AB, Hazle JD, Emelianov SY. Photoacoustic imaging of prostate brachytherapy seeds. Biomed Opt Express 2(8):2243-54, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21833361.
- Bouchard RR, Hsu SJ, Palmeri ML, Rouze NC, Nightingale KR, Trahey GE. Acoustic radiation force-driven assessment of myocardial elasticity using the displacement ratio rate (DRR) method. Ultrasound Med Biol 37(7):1087-100, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21645966.
- Bouchard RR, Palmeri ML, Pinton GF, Trahey GE, Streeter JE, Dayton PA. Optical tracking of acoustic radiation force impulse-induced dynamics in a tissue-mimicking phantom. J Acoust Soc Am 126(5):2733-45, 2009. PMID: 19894849.
- Hsu SJ, Bouchard RR, Dumont DM, Ong CW, Wolf PD, Trahey GE. Novel acoustic radiation force impulse imaging methods for visualization of rapidly moving tissue. Ultrason Imaging 31(3):183-200, 2009. PMID: 19771961.
- Bouchard RR, Hsu SJ, Wolf PD, Trahey GE. In vivo cardiac, acoustic-radiation-force-driven, shear wave velocimetry. Ultrason Imaging 31(3):201-13, 2009. PMID: 19771962.
- Bouchard RR, Dahl JJ, Hsu SJ, Palmeri ML, Trahey GE. Image quality, tissue heating, and frame rate trade-offs in acoustic radiation force impulse imaging. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 56(1):63-76, 2009. PMID: 19213633.
- Bouchard RR, Van Soest G, Trahey GE, Van Der Steen AF. Optical tracking of superficial dynamics from an acoustic radiation force-induced excitation. Ultrason Imaging 31(1):17-30, 2009. PMID: 19507680.
- Zhai L, Palmeri ML, Bouchard RR, Nightingale RW, Nightingale KR. An integrated indenter-ARFI imaging system for tissue stiffness quantification. Ultrason Imaging 30(2):95-111, 2008. PMID: 18939611.
- Hsu SJ, Bouchard RR, Dumont DM, Wolf PD, Trahey GE. In vivo assessment of myocardial stiffness with acoustic radiation force impulse imaging. Ultrasound Med Biol 33(11):1706-19, 2007. e-Pub 2007. PMID: 17698282.
- Palmeri ML, Sharma AC, Bouchard RR, Nightingale RW, Nightingale KR. A finite-element method model of soft tissue response to impulsive acoustic radiation force. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 52(10):1699-712, 2005. PMID: 16382621.
- Lee HJ, Liu Y, Zhao J, Zhou M, Bouchard RR, Mitcham T, Wallace M, Stafford RJ, Li C, Gupta S, Melancon MP. In vitro and in vivo mapping of drug release after laser ablation thermal therapy with doxorubicin-loaded hollow gold nanoshells using fluorescence and photoacoustic imaging. J Control Release 172(1):152-158. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23920038.
Book Chapters
- Zhou M, Lui L, Yao J, Bouchard R, Wang LV, Li C. Photoacoustic Imaging of Vasculature. In: Applications of Nanoparticles in Biomedical Imaging. Springer: New York, 2016.
- Rosenzweig S, Bouchard R, Polascik T, Zhai L, Nightingale K. Prostate Elastography and Photoacoustic Imaging. In: Image-Guided Prostate Cancer Treatments. Springer: Heidelberg, 2014.
- Aglyamov S, Bouchard RR, Graf IM, Emelianov SY. Breast Elasticity Imaging. In: Physics of Mammographic Imaging. Taylor & Franics: Boca Ranton, 2012.
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | Neoadjuvant treatment response monitoring of breast cancer with molecular photoacoustic imaging |
| Funding Source: | Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Cancer Center Support Grant - Small Animal Imaging Facility |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Ultrasound/Photoacoustic Service Leader |
| Title: | Molecular Photoacoustic Imaging for Diagnostics and Therapy Monitoring |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NIBIB |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | HARMONY Project: Ultrasound-based Neurostimulation |
| Funding Source: | Baylor College of Medicine |
| Role: | Principal Investigator-MDACC |
| Title: | Photon Counting Detector MicroCT |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | Minor User |
| Title: | Development of fluorinated dyes for deeper tissue photoacoustic imaging with phase changing nanodroplets |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NIBIB |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Biodegradable Radiopaque Polymeric Scaffolds Loaded with Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Image-Guided Arteriovenous Fistula Maturation and Long-Term Patency |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NHLBI |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |