Amir Manbachi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Personal Statement

My long-term goal is to initiate and lead meaningful research projects that can routinely generate clinical translation and commercial enterprises, hence benefiting medicine and society, and I currently do this through nurturing and mentoring the next generation of Biomedical Engineers (164 trainees to date) at Johns Hopkins while collaborating with Hopkins neurosurgeons on their ideas. What keeps me awake in the middle of the night is the anticipation of the next great scientific idea, and the next collaboration with clinicians, leading to a new generation of inventions, prototype developments, industrial partnerships, FDA approvals and market sales, thereby saving patients’ lives on a global caliber, in addition to creating jobs, thereby helping the local community. Biomedical engineers are poised to make unparalleled impact and save lives by inventing devices that can help millions of patients worldwide, and I am committed to fulfilling that role! My interests and expertise are in the following areas: physics of acoustics, as well as design and fabrication of novel image-guided interventions (primarily ultrasound imaging, and most recently therapeutic ultrasound), with a passion for clinical translation and quality assurance for patient safety. My clinical research interests and involvement since my Ph.D. have been primarily on minimally invasive approaches in the areas of neurosurgery, specifically in brain and spine. Having founded a company based on my Ph.D. studies (Spinesonics Medical Inc.), currently leading another entrepreneurial initiative to develop a focused ultrasound device (for which we have already raised over $250K), and closely mentoring close to 40 design projects in affiliation with the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID) and the JHU BME undergraduate design program, our department's remarkable record for clinically driven research and innovation deeply resonate with me. In particular, this department offers exceptional access to medical and engineering resources, and I have fully leveraged that in my collaborations with the Departments of Surgery and Radiology, and the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety.

Mission Statement

(1) To bring novel medical devices into the neurosurgical world by exploring innovative designs; (2) scholarship through communicating the findings to the world; and (3) training the next generation of biomedical engineers, passionate about changing the paradigm of brain and spinal cord injury treatments.