Education / Research

Cyril Lafon was born in Saint Yrieix la Perche, France, in 1974. He earned his B.Sc. degree in Physics from University Blaise Pascal of Clermont Ferrand, France and University of Montreal, Quebec, in 1995, and his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from University Claude Bernard of Lyon, France, in 1999. After developing interstitial HIFU probes during his Ph.D. study in INSERM Unit 281, Dr. Lafon joined for two years the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington, Seattle, as a postdoctoral research fellow. Dr. Lafon worked there on ultrasound induced hemostasis and the development of tissue mimicking phantoms for HIFU applications. Dr. Lafon was recruited by INSERM, Unit 556, in 2002 as a research scientist. His recent research interests focus on modeling ultrasound wave propagation, development of ultrasonic therapeutic devices for thermal ablation or drug delivery and communication by ultrasound for medical applications.

Dr Lafon received the following awards: Award by the “Amis de l’Université de Lyon” (1997), Young scientist Award from the City of Lyon (2000) and the Fred Lizzi Early Carreer Award from the International Society on Therapeutic Ultrasound (2010). He is member of the IEEE since 2002, the International Society on Therapeutic Ultrasound since 2003, French Society on Biomedical Engineering since 2009 and French Acoustical Society since 2010. Dr Lafon was elected for the CSS3 of INSERM in 2008 and for the board of the International Society on Therapeutic Ultrasound in 2010.

2.       Lafon C, Theillère Y, Prat F, Arefiev A, Chapelon JY, Cathignol D. (2000), Development of an interstitial ultrasound applicator for endoscopic procedures: animal experimentation. Ultrasound in Med and Biol., 26 (4), 669-675.

3.       Prat F, Lafon C, Theillère Y, Fritsch J, Choury AD, Lorand I, Cathignol D. (2001), Destruction of a bile duct carcinoma by intraductal high intensity ultrasound during ERCP. Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 53 (7), 797-800.

4.       Melodelima D, Lafon C, Prat F, Birer A, Cathignol D. (2002), Ultrasound cylindrical phased array for transoesophageal thermal therapy: initial studies. Phys. Med. Biol., 47, 4191-4203.

5.       Prat F, Lafon C, Melodelima D, Theillère Y, Fritsch J, Pelletier G, Buffet C, Cathignol D. (2002), Endoscopic treatment of cholangiocarcinoma and carcinoma of the duodenal papilla by intraductal high-intensity US: Results of a pilot study. Gastrointest Endosc., 56(6), 909-915.

6.       Lafon C , Zderic V, Noble ML, Yuen JC, Kaczkowski PJ, Sapozhnikov OA, Chavrier F, Crum LA and Vaezy S. (2005), Gel phantom for use in high-intensity focused ultrasound dosimetry. Ultrasound Med Biol., 31(10), 1383-1389.

7.       Souchon R, Bouchoux G, Maciejko E, Lafon C, Cathignol D, Bertrand M, Chapelon JY. (2005), Monitoring the formation of thermal lesions with heat-induced echo-strain imaging: A feasibility study. Ultrasound Med Biol., 31(2), 251-259.

8.       Lafon C, Bouchoux G, Murat FJ, Birer A, Theillere Y, Chapelon JY, Cathignol D. (2007), High intensity ultrasound clamp for bloodless partial nephrectomy: In vitro and in vivo experiments. Ultrasound Med Biol., 33(1), 105-12.

9.       Bouchoux G, Lafon C, Berriet R, Chapelon JY, Fleury G, Cathignol D. (2008), Dual-mode ultrasound transducer for image-guided thermal therapy. Ultrasound Med Biol., 34(4), 607-16.

10.   Delabrousse E, Mithieux F, Birer A, Chesnais S, Salomir R, Chapelon J, Lafon C. (2008), Percutaneous Sonographically-Guided Interstitial Ultrasound Ablation: Experimentation in an in Vivo Pig Liver Model. J Vasc Interv Radiol., 19(12), 1749-56.

11.  Goldenstedt C, Birer A, Cathignol D, Chesnais S, El Bahri Z, Massard C, Taverdet JL, Lafon C. (2008), Delivery by shock waves of active principle embedded in gelatin-based capsules.  Ultrason Sonochem., 15(5), 808-14.

12.  Rata M, Salomir R, Umathum R, Jenne J, Lafon C, Cotton F, Bock M. (2008), Endoluminal Ultrasound Applicator with an Integrated RF Coil for High-Resolution MRI-guided HICU Thermotherapy. Phys Med Biol, 53(22), 6549-6567.

13.  Delabrousse E, Salomir R, Birer A, Paquet C, Mithieux F, Chapelon JY, Cotton F, Lafon C. (2010). Automatic Temperature Control for MR-guided Interstitial Ultrasound Ablation in Liver using a Percutaneous Applicator: Ex vivo and In vivo Initial Studies. Magn Reson Med., 63(3),667-79.

14.  Owen NR, Bouchoux G, Seket B, Murillo-Rincon A, Merouche S, Birer A, Paquet C, Delabrousse E, Chapelon J, Berriet R, Fleury G, Lafon C. (2010), In Vivo Evaluation of a Mechanically-Oscillating Dual-Mode Interstitial Applicator for Ultrasound Imaging and Thermal Ablation. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng., 57(1), 80-92.

15.  Aptel F, Charrel T, Palazzi X, Chapelon JY, Denis P, Lafon C. (2010) Histologic effects of a new device for high-intensity focused ultrasound cyclocoagulation. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 51:5092-5098.