Constantin Coussios OBE FREng

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.

In 2008, Prof. Coussios  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, FDA approval, and successful commercialization in both Europe and North America. 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 novel technologies for micro-invasive replacement and repair of the intervertebral disc.

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.

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, awarded an OBE in 2022 for services to biomedical engineering, and elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2024.

• Biomedical applications of acoustics, fluid mechanics and control
• Therapeutic ultrasound, for example the use of Focused Ultrasound (FUS) for non-invasive cancer therapy, and the use of ultrasound for targeted drug and gene delivery, immuno-oncology, immuno-modulation and  transdermal vaccination.
• Normothermic isolated organ perfusion for targeted drug and gene delivery, as well as organ preservation and repair prior to transplantation
• Novel technologies for sport medicine, including the use of neuroimaging and wearables for the assessment and prevention of sport-related concussion, evaluation of the effect of mental health and well-being on sport injury, and the use of modelling approaches to identify and mitigate mechanisms of sports injury.

Dr Michael Gray - Academic
Professor Liang He - Academic
Miss Johanna Hettinga - DPhil Student
Dr Sara Keller - Research Staff
Dr Brian Lyons - Research Staff
Ms Matilde Maardalen - DPhil Student
Professor Malavika Nair - Academic
Mr Michael Newsome - DPhil Student
Professor Eleanor Stride - Academic
Professor Mauricio Villarroel - Academic

• 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)
• OBE for Services to Biomedical Engineering (2022)

1. P.C. Lyon, M.D. Gray, C. Mannaris, L. K. Folkes, M. Stratford, L. Campo, D.Y.F. Chung, S. Scott, M. Anderson, R. Goldin, R. Carlisle, F. Wu, M.R. Middleton, F.V. Gleeson and C-.C. Coussios, “TARDOX: A Phase I trial Investigating the Safety and Feasibility of Ultrasound-Triggered Targeted Drug Delivery in Liver Tumours”, Lancet Oncology 19(8): 1027-1039 (2018).
2. D. Nasralla, C-.C. Coussios, Mergental, M. Z. Akhtar, A. J. Butler, C.D.L. Ceresa, V. Chiocchia, S. J. Dutton, J. C. García-Valdecasas, N. Heaton, C. Imber, W. Jassem, I. Jochmans, J. Karani, S.R. Knight, P. Kocabayoglu, M. Malagò, D. Mirza, P.J. Morris, A. Pallan, A. Paul, M. Pavel, M.T. P.R. Perera, J. Pirenne, R. Ravikumar, L. Russell, S. Upponi, C. J.E. Watson, A. Weissenbacher, R.J. Ploeg, P.J. Friend, “A Randomized Trial of Normothermic Preservation in Liver Transplantation”, Nature 557: 50–56 (2018). {COVER ARTICLE }
3. A. Weissenbacher, L. Lo Faro, O. Boubriak, M.F. Soares, I.S. Roberts, J.P. Hunter, D. Voyce, N. Mikov, A. Cook, R.J. Ploeg, C-.C. Coussios and P.J. Friend. “Twenty‐four–hour normothermic perfusion of discarded human kidneys with urine recirculation”, Am J Transplant. 00:1–15 (2018).
4. R. Myers, C. Coviello, P. Erbs, C. Rowe, J. Kwan, J. Foloppe, C, Crake, S. Finn, E. Jackson, J.-M. Balloul, C. Story, -C. Coussios and R. Carlisle, "Polymeric Cups for Cavitation Mediated Delivery of Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus", Molecular Therapy 24(9): 1627–1633 (2016).
5. R. Ravikumar, W. Jassem, H. Mergental, N. Heaton, D. Mirza, T. Perera, A. Quaglia, D. Holroyd, T. Vogel, -C Coussios and P.J. Friend, “Liver Transplantation After Ex Vivo Normothermic Machine Preservation: a Phase 1 (First-in-Man) Cinical Trial”, Am. J. Transplant. 16(6):1779-87 (2016). {COVER ARTICLE, American Journal of Transplantation Outstanding Article award }
6. J.J. Kwan, R. Myers, C.M. Coviello, S.M. Graham, A.R. Shah, E. Stride, R.C. Carlisle and -C. Coussios, “Ultrasound-Propelled Nanocups for Drug Delivery”, Small 11: 5305-5314 (2015).
7. S. Mo. R. Carlisle, R. Laga, R. Myers, S. Graham, R. Cawood, K. Ulbrich L. Seymour and -C. Coussios, "Increasing the Density of Nanomedicines Improves their Ultrasound-Mediated Delivery to Tumours", J. Controlled Release 210: 10-18 (2015). {Jorge Heller J. Controlled Release Outstanding Paper Award}.
8. C. Coviello, R. Kozick, J Choi, M Gyongy, PP Smith and C-C. Coussios, “Passive Acoustic Mapping Utilizing Optimal Beamforming in Real-Time Ultrasound Therapy Monitoring”, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 137: 2573-2585 (2015).
9. R. Carlisle, J. Choi, M. Bazan-Peregrino, R. Laga, V. Subr, L. Kotska, K. Ubrich, -C. Coussios and L.W. Seymour, “Polymer Stealthing and Focused Ultrasound to Enable Tumor Accumulation and Penetration of Virotherapy”, J. Nat. Cancer Inst. 105(22): 1701–1710 (2013).
10. Bazan-Perergrino, B. Rifai, R. Carlisle, J. Choi, C. Arvanitis, L. Seymour and C-C. Coussios, ‘Cavitation-Enhanced Delivery of a Conditionally Replicating Oncolytic Adenovirus to Tumours by Therapeutic Ultrasound’, J. Controlled Release 169: 40–47 (2013).
11. C. Jensen, R. Ritchie, M. Gyongy, J.R.T. Collin, T. Leslie and -C. Coussios, “Spatio-Temporal Monitoring of HIFU Therapy by Passive Acoustic Mapping”, Radiology 262(1): 252-261 (2012).
12. M. Bazan-Perergrino, C. Arvanitis, B. Rifai, L. Seymour and C-C. Coussios, ‘Ultrasound-induced cavitation enhances the extravasation and therapeutic efficacy of an oncolytic virus in an in vitro model’, J. Controlled Release 157(2): 235-242 (2012).
13. M. Gyongy and -C. Coussios, ‘Passive Spatial Mapping of Inertial Cavitation during HIFU Exposure”, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 57(1):48-56 (2010).
14. J. Brockmann, S. Reddy, -C. Coussios, D. Piggott, D. Guirriero, D. Hughes, R. Morovat, D. Roy, L. Winter and P.J. Friend, ‘Normothermic Perfusion: a New Paradigm in Organ Preservation’, Annals of Surgery 250:1-6 (2009).
15. C.-C. Coussios and R.A. Roy, ‘Applications of Acoustics and Cavitation to Non-Invasive Therapy and Drug Delivery’, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 40: 395-420 (2008)
16. ter Haar and C.-C. Coussios, ‘HIFU: Physical Principles and Devices’, International Journal of Hyperthermia 23(2): 89-104 (2007).
17. C.-C. Coussios, C.H. Farny, G. ter Haar and R.A. Roy, ‘Role of Acoustic Cavitation in the Delivery and Monitoring of Cancer Treatment by High Intensity Focussed Ultrasound (HIFU)’, International Journal of Hyperthermia 23(2): 105-120 (2007).