Robert Sticca, M.D., UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences surgical chief, is among a handful of pioneers developing a new surgical technology that uses bubbles and sound waves to destroy diseased or injured tissue including malignant tumors or cancer. These surgical techniques may eliminate the need for many of the traditional panoply of surgical tools, including the venerable scalpel.
  

“It’s an incredibly promising technology, but we’ve still got a long way to go before you’ll see this in clinical use,” says Sticca, a distinguished clinician and medical school faculty member who teaches and practices surgery and maintains several active research programs.