The UT winner of the Professor de Winter award 2024 has been announced. The award is for Dr. Ir. Libera Fresiello, assistant professor in the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Physiology (CRPH) group, the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and the research institute TechMed. Fresiello won the award for her article: 'A patient-specific ultrasound soft robotic left ventricle (ventricle) embedded in a closed-loop cardiovascular simulator for advanced device testing.' This article appeared in APL Bioengineering, a highly regarded scientific journal of AIP Publishing. The award will be handed out during the Dies in November, at the same time as the Professor de Winter award 2025 ceremony.
The Professor de Winter award is an annual prize for the best internationally referenced conference contribution or an article written by a female assistant professor or associate professor. Fresiello's award-winning article was selected from seven nominations.
Testing cardiovascular devices for medical companies
Fresiello develops 'hybrid' simulators, according to an innovative mixed in silico-in vitro modelling technique, in which a computational model can be coupled to a hydraulic interface and anatomical phantoms. She uses these simulators to test cardiovascular devices for external medical companies (she has consulted eight companies so far). Fresiello also develops fully computational simulators that serve to educate and train medical students and staff. She works with a strong multidisciplinary approach: clinical studies and observations, data collection and analysis, and cardiovascular modelling techniques.
Background Libera Fresiello
Fresiello obtained her PhD with a project for the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Italian National Research Council. During this PhD project, she collaborated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France and Brunel University in England. For her postdoc, she moved to the Catholic University of Leuven thanks to a Marie Curie grant. From October 2017 to February 2018, she was a visiting researcher at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, thanks to the Frans Van de Werf grant.
Jury verdict
Dr. Fresiello particularly excels in combining engineering and clinical work in medical care. She is working on the development of simulators that simulate the functioning of the heart and medical devices used in heart failure down to the smallest detail. This makes it possible to replace testing on the body as much as possible with testing in the lab with the help of computer simulations. The uniqueness of the simulation technique developed: high level of anatomical realism thanks to soft robotic technology, high physiological complexity thanks to computer simulation, tunability of the whole system for reproducing patient-specific cases, high versatility in combining imaging techniques.
Professor de Winter award
This publication award for top scientific talent is the award for the best international referee conference contribution or an article in an internationally referenced scientific journal. Target group: female assistant professors and associate professors who are working at the UT at the time of acceptance of the publication in question. Candidates can nominate their own article or conference contribution. The prize amounts to € 2,500 and is awarded annually from the Professor De Winter Fund, a named fund that was established at the University Fund Twente by the late Mrs. De Winter. After she died in 2013, her heirs, UT alumnus Henk Hoving and his partner Thijs van Reijn, decided to continue the prize.
