University of Virginia
Class of 2026
Mapping the Focused Ultrasound Funding Landscape (Health Research Alliance Analyzer)
Project Overview
My primary project was building a combined funding-intelligence picture of the focused ultrasound field by pulling and cleaning data from the Health Research Alliance (HRA) Analyzer, a searchable database of awards made by HRA member organizations, including from foundations and federal funding. The goal was to give the Foundation a clearer view of who funds focused ultrasound research, at what scale, and in which disease areas, so the team can better spot funding trends, gaps, and potential co-funding partners.
Results
I identified 94 foundation/philanthropic grants totaling $46.6 million across 26 funders and 55 institutions, and 803 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants totaling $1.25 billion across 26 institutes and 216 institutions. Cancer led all disease areas by grant count (34), followed by cardiovascular and neurological research, with the American Heart Association as the top foundation funder and the National Cancer Institute as the top federal institute by dollars ($410.8 million). The data also showed NIH funding for focused ultrasound growing substantially since about 2008, while foundation-level funding stayed smaller but remarkably steady across the same period.
Why were you initially interested in working with the Focused Ultrasound Foundation?
My computer science coursework didn’t feel like it had a clear direction until a biostatistics class piqued my interest in gathering and interpreting data to communicate something useful. That interest led me to independently analyze 309 NIH-funded focused ultrasound grants across 133 organizations on my own, which gave me a genuine appreciation for how transformative this technology could be for patients. When the Foundation’s internship came up, it felt like a natural continuation of research I was already doing. I was drawn to the idea of contributing indirectly to the field by helping structure the data and insights that inform the Foundation’s leadership.
What surprised you the most about your internship experience?
What surprised me most was the wide the range of focused ultrasound applications. Working across the funding and clinical trial data, I saw that it applied to everything from cancer and cardiovascular disease to stroke and Parkinson’s, all the way to psychiatric conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. I didn’t expect one technology to have that much reach across such different areas of medicine.
How will your accomplishments impact the field of focused ultrasound?
The HRA data project makes the shared foundation/NIH-funding database more complete and accurate for every organization that references HRA Analyzer, not just the Foundation. The follow-on funding tracking system creates an ongoing way to show whether the Foundation’s early-stage grants lead to larger federal follow-on funding, which is useful evidence for its funding model.