Professor
Constantin Coussios
MEng MA PhD (Cantab)
Director, Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Fellow of Magdalen College
Email:
Tel: 01865 617727
College: Magdalen College
Location: Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Marcela Botnar Wing, Oxford OX3 7LD

Professor Constantin Coussios is the Director of the Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering. He received his BA, MEng and PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and was elected to the first statutory chair in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford in 2011, with special responsibility for drug delivery and therapeutic devices. He founded and heads the Biomedical Ultrasonics, Biotherapy and Biopharmaceuticals Laboratory (BUBBL), a research group of some 50 researchers today housed in the Marcela wing of the Botnar Research Centre.

Between 2014 and 2021, he served as Director of the £11m Oxford Centre for Drug Delivery Devices (OxCD3) supported by a national programme grant from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in collaboration with the pharmaceutical and medical device industry to improve oncological drug delivery: during this period, he led TarDox, a first-in-human trial of ultrasound-triggered targeted drug delivery in patients with liver tumours (Lancet Oncology 2018). In 2021, he became the founding director of the Podium Institute for Sports Medicine and Technology, supported by a £25m benefaction to the University.

Prof. Coussios received the UK’s Institute of Acoustics’ Young Person’s Award for Innovation in Acoustical Engineering in 2007, was elected as Secretary-General of the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound between 2006-2010 and was honoured with the Society’s Fred Lizzi award in 2012. He was elected as the youngest ever Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America in 2009, and received the Society’s Bruce Lindsay award in 2012. In 2008, he was one of two academic founders of the Oxford University spin-out OrganOx Ltd., which has developed a novel normothermic perfusion device for improved liver and kidney preservation prior to transplantation through to randomized trials (Nature 2018), CE marking and FDA approval, NICE approval and successful commercilization.

In 2014, he co-founded OxSonics Ltd, which is commercializing cavitation-enhanced oncological drug delivery, and in 2016 he co-founded OrthoSon Ltd, which is developing minimally invasive replacement of the intervertebral disc. He received the Silver Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2017 for contributions to the translation of novel medical technologies into clinical practice, was elected a Fellow of the Academy in 2019, and awarded an OBE in 2022 for services to biomedical engineering.

  • Biomedical applications of acoustics
  • Fluid mechanics and control
  • Therapeutic ultrasound, for example the use of High-Intensity Focussed Ultrasound (HIFU) for non-invasive cancer therapy, and the use of ultrasound for targeted drug and gene delivery
  • Transdermal drug delivery and methods of monitoring drug particle distribution and dissolution
  • Normothermic isolated organ perfusion for targeted drug and gene delivery, as well as organ preservation and repair prior to transplantation

BUBBL: Non-invasive Therapy and Drug Delivery

  • Shell European Project Prize (1997)
  • Greek State National Scholarship (1998-2001)
  • ASA Best Student Paper Award (2001)
  • Hamilton Prize (2001)
  • ASA Hunt Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Acoustics (2002)
  • Institute of Acoustics Young Person’s Award for Innovation in Acoustical Engineering (2007)
  • EPSRC Challenging Engineering Award (2007)
  • Elected a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (2009)
  • R. Bruce Lindsay Award by the Acoustical Society of America (2012).
  • Fred Lizzi Award by the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (2012).
  • Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal (2017)
Passive acoustic mapping of magnetic microbubbles for cavitation enhancement and localization.
Crake C,  Victor MDS,  Owen J,  Coviello C,  Collin J,  Coussios C-C,  Stride E,  et al. (2015)
Inertial cavitation to non-invasively trigger and monitor intratumoral release of drug from intravenously delivered liposomes.
Graham SM,  Carlisle R,  Choi JJ,  Stevenson M,  Shah AR,  Myers RS,  Fisher K,  Peregrino M-B,  Seymour L,  Coussios CC,  et al. (2014)
Properties, characteristics and applications of microbubbles for sonothrombolysis.
de Saint Victor M,  Crake C,  Coussios C-C,  Stride E,  et al. (2014)
Exploitation of acoustic cavitation-induced microstreaming to enhance molecular transport.
Bhatnagar S,  Schiffter H,  Coussios C-C,  et al. (2014)
Exploitation of acoustic cavitation-induced microstreaming to enhance molecular transport
Bhatnagar S,  Schiffter H,  Coussios CC,  et al. (2014)
Normothermic Perfusion of Discarded Human Pancreases.
Ravikumar R,  Coussios C,  Friend P,  et al. (2014)
Non-invasive and real-time passive acoustic mapping of ultrasound-mediated drug delivery.
Choi JJ,  Carlisle RC,  Coviello C,  Seymour L,  Coussios C-C,  et al. (2014)
Normothermic Perfusion of Discarded Human Pancreases
Ravikumar R,  Coussios C,  Friend P,  et al. (2014)
Simulations of ultrasound propagation in a spinal structure.
Qiao S,  Coussios CC,  Cleveland RO,  et al. (2014)