Amir Manbachi

Amir Manbachi is an Iranian-born, Canadian-American academic and researcher, currently working as an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and known for his work in Medical Ultrasound. He is the co-founder and current director of HEPIUS Innovation Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

Academic Biography Manbachi is of Iranian descent. Later, he obtained his master's degree and a PhD in biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto. During his third year as a PhD candidate, he, along with his university advisers, established Spinesonics Medical which developed a sensor designed to aid in vertebral screw insertion procedures. They received $850,000 of grant funding to support their research and development efforts. At Johns Hopkins University, he co-founded HEPIUS Innovation Labs and now serves as its director. He also served as an associate director of the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design.

In 2018, Manbachi and Nao J. Gamo began researching ultrasound technology with the potential to target and "burn" brain tumors.

In 2022, Manbachi received Baltimore Business Journal's 40 under 40 award, and secured a Johns Hopkins Discovery award.

In 2024, he received American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine's Peter Arger Excellence in Medical Student Education Award as well as the Hisako Terasaki's Young Innovator Award.

Musical activity Manbachi has performed Persian classical music as a Tombak player. While studying engineering at the University of Toronto, he performed with The Chakavak Ensemble, in Canada. In 2007, The Varsity reported that Manbachi had played the Tombak since childhood and that Chakavak had performed at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre in a program inspired by the poetry of Rumi. In 2026, he was listed as the Tombak player for Soul of Persia at the Asia North Festival in Baltimore.

Awards and recognition 40 under 40 by Baltimore Business Journal University of Toronto's 2015 Inventor of the year award Robert B. Pond Sr. Excellence in Teaching Excellence Award, Johns Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering Johns Hopkins Inst for Clinical and Translational Research's KL2 Clinical Research Scholar, 2020 FDA Breakthrough designation pathway awarded to his MUSIC device invention, 2023

Selected publications

Tsehay, Yohannes; Zeng, Yinuo; Weber-Levine, Carly; Awosika, Tolu; Kerensky, Max; Hersh, Andrew; Ou, Ze; Jiang, Kelly; Bhimreddy, Meghana; Bauer, Stuart J; Theodore, John N; Quiroz, Victor M; Suk, Ian; Alomari, Safran; Sun, Junfeng; Tong, Shanbao; Thakor, Nitish V; Doloff, Joshua C; Theodore, Nicholas; Manbachi, Amir (July 2023). "Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound Neuromodulation of a Rodent's Spinal Cord Suppresses Motor Evoked Potentials" IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2023 Jul;70(7):1992-2001. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2022.3233345. Epub 2023 Jun 19. PMID: 37018313; PMC10510849.