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Ultrasound‐guided procedures require excellent hand–eye coordination and practice. Trainees should gain this important skill with a phantom prior to performing procedures on patients. Currently available phantoms each have their own unique limitations. We propose an easily made, inexpensive, tissue‐like phantom using a previously unreported material. The sonographic appearance of the phantom, with and without a 14‐gauge needle, is compared with breast tissue, gelatin phantoms, and commercial phantoms. Target lesions can be produced using readily available materials. The proposed phantom is cheaper than commercial phantoms; performs better than gelatin phantoms, and is ultimately a superior practice tool for residents.

Introduction: My project was a continuation of the Vascular Research Lab’s (VRL) ongoing research at the University of Tennessee Medical Center Knoxville (UTMCK) aimed at optimizing liposomal encapsulation efficiency of small interfering RNA (siRNA) which can be used to silence genes to prevent a variety of disease pathologies. Methods: Assay siRNA loading capacity of liposomes based on lipid concentration Development of a method for liposome purification: HPLC & HiTRAP Column Results & Conclusion: siRNA loading capacity Higher lipid:siRNA resulted in increased encapsulation efficiency HPLC – did not work as expected HiTRAP Column – currently being optimized to be used as part of standard operating procedures