Photos of Zhen Xu, in lab and outside histotripsy research center
Zhen Xu , University of Michigan Engineering professor and a co-inventor of the soundwave-based cancer treatment histotripsy, has been named a 2026 recipient of the Golden Goose Award .
The award recognizes "unexpected, seemingly odd federally funded research that ultimately leads to transformative breakthroughs for science and society." It is handed out annually by the American Association for the Advancement of Science .
Invented at U-M, histotripsy is the first commercially available ultrasound-based approach to treating tumors, destroying them without surgery and with few side effects. Since receiving FDA authorization for liver tumors in 2023, U-M startup HistoSonics has installed over 130 treatment systems around the world, and they've been used to treat over 5,000 patients.
To rapidly discover more cancers and other diseases that may be treatable with focused ultrasound, Xu directs the University of Michigan Histotripsy Center —a first-of-its-kind research institution that launched earlier this month .
"Part of our nation's scientific and economic leadership starts with giving researchers
the freedom to follow promising ideas, even when no one knows exactly where they'll
lead," said Sudip Parikh , AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the
Science family of journals. "This year's Golden Goose awardees show why that freedom matters.
"Some of our most consequential discoveries began with questions whose value was far from obvious at the outset. Sustained federal investment ensures scientists can keep asking those questions and pursuing unexpected discoveries that make us healthier, safer and more competitive."
Xu said funding from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense was critical to exploratory work on histotripsy.
"The early research and development of such a new, disruptive technology was viewed as too high a risk for investors and companies, such that we could not get funding from industry or investors early on," Xu said. "The initial research on histotripsy—as well as its early development for treatment of cancer, brain diseases and cardiovascular diseases—was largely funded by the NIH.
"Government funding was the only way to allow us to establish a solid research foundation and advance histotripsy technology until it was ready for commercialization."
In 2009, Xu and a small group of U-M engineers and doctors founded HistoSonics to commercialize histotripsy technology. In June, HistoSonics reached a valuation of $3.75 billion and now employs roughly 500 people, with offices in Ann Arbor and corporate headquarters in Minnesota.
"Even though it is currently FDA-approved to treat tumors in the liver, it is a platform technology that can be used to treat so many diseases, including various cancer types—for instance, tumors in the kidney, pancreas, breast, prostate, thyroid, skin, sarcoma—and brain diseases like hemorrhagic stroke, brain tumors and epilepsy," Xu said. "It can also be combined with cancer drugs and immunotherapy to treat some advanced cancer types that currently don't have a cure."
First awarded in 2012, the Golden Goose Awards are meant to counter the narrative of wasteful spending by the federal government. Along with Xu, this year's recipients of the Golden Goose Award are:
Researchers whose work led to NASA's Black Marble program, which can track power outages in real time.
University of Chicago researcher Sidney Nagel, whose work illuminates the physics behind complex phenomena, leading to improvements in medical diagnostics, inkjet printing and industrial processes.
Xu and the University of Michigan have a financial interest in HistoSonics.