Imaging & Diagnostics | Technical Medical Centre

The Imaging & Diagnostics RESEARCH DOMAIN aims to revolutionise the entire medical trajectory from diagnosis to follow-up.

This will enable healthcare professionals to improve their care for patients by using accurate, quantitative and personalised imaging in screening, diagnosis and evaluation. It also improves their ability to practice precision medicine.

From development to clinical testing

Our research spans development, demonstration, and assessment, as well as clinical testing of new technologies and methods. Application areas include anatomic and functional imaging of vesicles, cells, tissues, vasculature and organs to diagnose and characterise disease and health. We work in the fields of applied physics, technology development, mathematics, translational research and clinical practice. Our research groups have a focus on ultrasound, optical, photoacoustic, molecular, magnetic and nuclear imaging for precision medicine. Our students are involved in various research groups. The university has bachelor and master programmes in Health Sciences, Biomedical Engineering and Technical Medicine.

We have strong ties with industry partners. Some of our researchers also serve as surgeons in clinics and hospitals. This allows us to perform extensive clinical tests at our university and in hospitals and enables us to valorize research through startups and/or spinoff companies. We see this mix of academic engineering, industry partners and healthcare professionals as an essential part of our success.

Highlights

UT researcher Anique Bellos-Grob wins the KNAW Early Career Award 2024

The KNAW Early Career Award recognizes early career researchers with innovative ideas. Each laureate receives €15,000 and a work of art. In 2024, Anique Bellos-Grob from the M3i research group of the S&T Faculty was one of twelve winners for her work on imaging pelvic floor issues like prolapse. Unlike traditional lying-down exams, her research uses a standing MRI scanner to image prolapse in its natural position, revealing symptoms more accurately.

Bob Geelkerken on Op1 to Explain Unique Research on Fake Surgeries

"Prof. Bob Geelkerken, from the M3i research group (S&T Faculty) and vascular surgeon at Medisch Spectrum Twente, leads a study where fake surgeries are performed to determine if the so-called band syndrome is a medical condition or psychological issue. Half of the patients receive a real operation, while the others undergo a fake one under anesthesia. 'One of the assertions was that half of the patients in my waiting room belonged to the psychiatrist, while the other half sat with the psychiatrist and belonged to me,' he explains."

Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE MeMeA 2024

MSc graduate Martin Reinok from MD&I and RAM groups wins runner-up Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE MeMeA 2024 conference, for his work entitled “Automated Passive Tracking for MR-guided Endovascular Interventions”. This work was part of Martin’s MSc thesis project, supervised by Wyger Brink from MD&I and Giulio Dagnino from the Robotics and Mechatronics group.

BioImaging Centre (BIC) officially opened

On March 30, 2023, the BioImaging Centre (BIC) opened, initiated by Ivo Vellekoop, Robert Passier, Marcel Karperien, Ine Segers, and Tom Knop. The BIC stands out for its unique combination of organ-on-chip technology and optical expertise, including the wavefront shaping technology developed at UT in 2007, now used globally. This technology is now available to end-users through the BIC. The centre significantly enhances UT's research facilities, providing innovative techniques and expert support to researchers from both academia and industry.

ERC starting grant for Guillaume Lajoinie & Tim Segers (2022)

The European Research Council honoured the applications of UT researchers from the Domain for an ERC 'Starting Grant'. These 'early career' grants go to Dr Guillaume Lajoinie (Medical Acoustics, PoF), and Dr Tim Segers (BIOS), who are both part of UT’s TechMed Centre. Each researcher will receive €1.5 million for a five-year period.