Meet the postdoc — Jordi Boons

To start off, could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your academic background?
My name is Jordi Boons, and my background is in Biomedical Engineering. I knew quite soon that I wanted to combine my medical and technical interests in my work, for which this study was the obvious choice. I did my PhD on the association between hearing loss and brain damage, after which I started in the CHIME project.

Can you tell us about the project you'll be working on and what interests you most about it?
My part of the CHIME project is on brain blood perfusion, measured with Arterial Spin Labeling. We are trying to investigate how changes in blood perfusion occur with diseases like small vessel disease and/or vascular dementia. I really like that this is a quite undiscovered area, as most research on brain damage involved gray or white matter. The possible involvement of blood perfusion, which is extremely vital for us humans, interests me the most.

What societal/medical issue does your research address?
The role of blood perfusion in diseases like small vessel disease or vascular dementia is not well understood at this point. With adequate understanding of this role, we may better understand how blood perfusion changes occur before and/or during these disease timelines.

What do you hope to achieve during your PhD, both personally and professionally?
I hope to learn a lot about MRI techniques to quantify blood perfusion in the brain. Furthermore, I hope to continue developing my skills and actively apply my knowledge after my PhD. 

Have you had a chance to meet your colleagues yet? How has the welcome been so far?
Yes! Even before I officially started, I attended a day in which the consortium got together to discuss the latest progress of the project. It was very nice to meet everyone and to get to know the project quite well within one day.