About us
The project team consists of researchers at different stages of their career.
University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) - High Field MRI Dept.
Dr. Jaco J.M. Zwanenburg
Assoc. Prof. of Translational Cerebrovascular MRI (background: Applied Physics). Research focus: Development of dedicated MRI techniques for neurovascular diseases; particular focus: imaging microvascular pulsatility and brain tissue pulsatile deformation that is involved in driving waste clearance.
Dr. Natalia Petridou
Assoc. Prof. of neurovascular coupling and neuroimaging (background: Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience). Research focus: Development of high precision functional MRI methods based on hemodynamics and mechanistic computational models to study neurovascular coupling in health and disease, with particular focus on dementia.
Dr. Alex Bhogal
Assist. Prof. on functional and metabolic imaging (background: Biophysics and Biomedical Imaging). Research focus: Combining multi‐parametric hemodynamic and spectroscopic neuro‐imaging readouts. Expertise in delivering physiological stimuli during MRI scanning, also for patient applications – this includes the application of acetazolamide and targeted respiratory protocols to induce hyperoxic and hypercapnic states for physiological imaging. Further focus on oxygen extraction mapping (OEF) based on quantitative susceptibility mapping techniques and other advanced physiological MRI analysis techniques such as cerebrovascular reactivity mapping (www.seeVR.nl).
Dr. Evita C. Wiegers
Assist. Prof. on metabolic MRI (background: Biomedical Engineering). Research focus: MR‐imaging of brain metabolism at 7T MRI and implementation of metabolic MRI techniques (1H‐MRS, 31P‐MRSI, 2HMRS and 13C‐MRS) into a clinical setting.
Dr. Merlijn van der Plas
Post‐doctoral researcher (background: Biomedical engineering/medical physics). Research focus: Validation and translation between pre‐clinical and clinical setup of MRI techniques to image microvascular pulsatility involved in driving waste clearance at 7T, and development of MRI sequences for simultaneous acquisition of 4D angiography and perfusion arterial spin labeling data at 3T.
University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) - Dept. of Neurology
Prof. Dr. Geert Jan Biessels
Professor of Neurology. Research focus: Application of advanced MRI in cerebral small vessel disease and dementia, vascular cognitive impairment (VCI), diabetes and dementia, focusing on development of novel markers to better characterize and diagnose VCI.
Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) - Dept. of Radiology, Gorter MRI
Prof. Dr. Matthias (Thijs) J.P. van Osch
Professor of Experimental Cerebrovascular imaging (background: Applied Physics). Research focus: Perfusion MRI, Pulse sequence design on Philips MRI, human brain clearance imaging, and 7T MRI. He is chairing the JPND‐consortium on human brain clearance imaging and is director of the C.J. Gorter MRI center.
Dr. Chloe F. Najac
Assistant professor (background: Bioengineering + Medical physics). Research focus: MR spectroscopic and imaging methods from 50mT to 7T. Her project focus on studying brain metabolism and structure in physiological condition and diseases (e.g. frontotemporal dementia, Huntington’s disease, AD), in pre‐clinical and clinical settings.
Dr. Lydiane Hirschler
Assistant professor (background: Biomedical engineering). Research focus: Development of new MRI methods for quantitative imaging of brain clearance mechanisms, and perfusion imaging at high magnetic field strength in humans and rodents.
Dr. Lena Václavů
Senior researcher (background: Neuroscience). Research focus: Development and translation of arterial spin labeling (perfusion MRI) and neurovascular imaging methods at clinical‐field strength (3T) to study brain physiology in health and disease.
Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam (Erasmus MC) - Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, Epidemiology
Prof. Dr. Meike Vernooij
Neuroradiologist and Professor of Population Imaging. Research focus: The use of MRI to study age‐related brain changes and markers of cerebral small vessel disease, in particular in the context of preclinical markers for cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam (Erasmus MC) - Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, Biomedical Imaging Group Rotterdam
Dr. Esther E. Bron
Assist. Prof. Neuroimage Analysis and Machine Learning (Background: Medical Natural Sciences). Research focus: Development of novel quantitative imaging biomarkers using machine learning and AI‐based disease models for diagnosis and prediction in neurodegeneration, and translation of this technology to clinical practice.