He was the first to patent microbubbles as an ultimate ultrasound contrast agent, and initiated cardiac ultrasound studies.
NAMPA, ID, July 13, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- E. Glenn Tickner has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
An expert in bioengineering and ultrasound research, Tickner was a skilled bioengineer for more than 45 years, the last 30 of which he specialized in ultrasound and ultrasound contrast. He was the first to patent microbubbles as an ultimate ultrasound contrast agent, and initiated cardiac ultrasound studies. [A microbubble is a bubble smaller than a red blood cell.] Many of these cardiac studies were in collaboration with Dr. William Bommer, of UC Davis Medical Center. Tickner also developed microbubble technology for other vascular diagnostic purposes.
Prior to embarking upon his professional journey, he earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Berkeley School of Engineering and a Master of Science from the same institution while performing water wave research and published scientific papers on modeling transient wind tides in shallow water, dynamic model studies of off-shore drilling platforms, and wave overtopping in shallow water. He subsequently completed coursework toward a Doctor of Philosophy at Stanford University. Following his academic accomplishments, he began his career at Vidya, an R&D company, where he developed the first successful 2-megawatt arc-plasma generator used by selected companies to test re-entry nosecone materials. This device is capable of heating the discharge air passing through it to nearly the temperature of the surface of the sun. Following that activity, he became a bioengineer for Vidya to uncover the genesis of Korotkoff sounds occurring under the blood pressure cuff. This research was performed under NASA contract to determine if the blood pressure cuff would correctly determine blood pressure in a zero g environment. This activity employed model studies and discovered the cause of the sound generated by the process was caused by a dynamic instability of the brachial artery underlying the blood pressure cuff. That research proved that gravity did not play a role in pressure measurements and allowed NASA to measure pressure in the conventional manner. That activity launched him into bioengineering for the remainder of his working career. Thus, he became one of the first group of bioengineers, outside of the orthopedic applications, in the world. This activity was followed by engineering model studies to determine the non-Newtonian characteristics of blood and elastic properties of arteries where he developed a nonlinear model theory to explain the elastic properties of arteries.
His 'aha' moment arrived, in 1976, when he recognized that gas bubbles were the ultimate ultrasound contrast agent because ultrasound waves are compression waves and bubbles are highly compressible. He, along with Ned Rasor, patented the first ultrasonic contrast agent using microbubbles. Many other patents followed that discovery.
The remainder of his career was devoted to microbubble research and development. Microbubbles were used for other application such as bubbles that adhered to tumor vessel walls. He concluded his working profession in 2006 at Point Biomedical where he assisted in the development of a biodegradable shell encapsulating the microbubble with controlled fragility of these agents. He served as a Distinguished Research Scientist. He has contributed nearly one hundred scientific papers and reports, abstracts, chapters in books, and patents thereby improving cardiac and cancer visualization by ultrasound using microbubbles.
Outside of his main career path, Mr. Tickner has exercised his creativity as an author of a fiction novel "Instinct or Learned?" He is in the process of writing a second novel which is temporarily entitled "Jessi." Mr. Tickner intends to continue to write and publish fiction books in his retirement.
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