Radiology & Nuclear Medicine

Research and innovation at the Department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine using state of the art imaging technologies contributes to the improvement of healthcare in general and of imaging diagnostics and image-guided and radionuclide therapies in particular. The department has developed one of the premier research programs in medical imaging in Europe and ranks highly worldwide. The basis of this accomplishment is a diverse research program that encompasses many key clinical and basic research topics and produces annually around 300 scientific papers. The program has achieved a high level of excellence and offers training and research opportunities to around 100 PhD students. Researchers at our department focus on the understanding and visualizing the molecular mechanisms of diseases, on developing tools for precision diagnostics including quantitative imaging biomarkers for disease prediction, disease assessment and for therapy monitoring, and on innovations in radionuclide therapies. Thereby, we aim to translate relevant scientific outcomes to (patient- specific) clinical practice and to have societal impact by adding value for the patients. Large amounts of data are collected, processed and analyzed and combined with other relevant genetic and clinical data. This enables our researchers to play a key role in the development of data driven medicine using deep learning and artificial intelligence.

For more information, please see our yearly scientific report.

Head of the Department: Prof. dr. Aad van der Lugt 

Head of Research & Education: dr. Monique C. de Waard
Staff advisors: Maurice Cats, Maureen van Duin & Britt Gulpen

Principal Investigators:

• Prof. dr. Juan A. Hernandez Tamames
• Prof. dr. Clemens W.G.M. Löwik
• Prof. dr. Marleen de Bruijne
• dr. Theo van Walsum
• dr. Stefan Klein
• Prof. dr. Aad van der Lugt
• Prof. dr. Marion Smits
• Prof. dr. Ricardo P.J. Budde
• dr. Alexander Hirsch
• Prof. dr. Edwin H.G. Oei
• dr. Ivo G. Schoots
• dr. Yann Seimbille
• Prof. dr. Erik F.A. Verburg
• dr. Tessa Brabander
• Prof. dr. Meike W. Vernooij
• Prof. dr. Myriam G.M. Hunink
• dr. Laura Mezzanotte
• dr. Julie Nonnekens
• dr. Daniel Bos
• dr. Esther E. Bron
  
• dr. Esther A.H. Warnert
• dr. Dirk H.J. Poot
• dr. Simone U. Dalm
• dr. Marcel van Straten
• dr. Jan-Jaap Visser

Affiliated Principal Investigators:

• Prof. dr. Harm A.W.M. Tiddens

Focus area 1: Biomedical Image Acquisition & Analysis

• Physics in CT Technology
• Physics in MR Technology
  
• Biomedical Imaging Group Rotterdam (BIGR)
  • AI for prostate and breast cancer analysis
  • AI in medical image analysis
  • Applied medical Image analysis
  • Artificial Intelligence for Integrated Diagnostics
  • Biomedical Imaging Research Infrastructure
  • Computational Population Biology
  • Eye Image Analysis Group Rotterdam
  • Image Guidance in Intervention and Therapy
  • Musculoskeletal Image Analysis
  • Neuroimage Analysis & Machine Learning
  • Quantitative MRI reconstruction (BIGR, Physics in MR Technology)

Focus area 2: Molecular Imaging

• Genetic Engineering for Multimodality Imaging
• Optical Molecular Imaging
• Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry
• Radiobiology of Radionuclide Therapy
• Radiotracer Interactions
• Translational Molecular Imaging & Therapy
• Clinical Radionuclide Imaging & Therapy

Focus area 3: Clinical Imaging

• Neuro Imaging
  • Imaging in Neurovascular Disease
  • Applied Physiological Neuroimaging
• Bench-to-Bedside MRI Biomarkers
• Cardiac Imaging
  • Cardiac Imaging CT
  • Cardiac Imaging MRI
• Abdominal Imaging
• Advanced Musculoskeletal Imaging (ADMIRE)
• Testing & Evaluating of Image-Guided Treatment
• Detection and Monitoring of Lung Abnormalities

Focus area 4: Imaging in Health Sciences

• Population Imaging
• Precision Epidemiology
• Imaging of Arteriosclerosis
• Assessment of Radiological Technology (ART)
• Pediatric Population Neuro Imaging
• Value-based imaging

Click here.

MR-scanners

• 3.0 T (3)
• 1.5 T (6)

CT-scanners

• Dual Source (2)
• Single Source (5) 

Angiography, Interventional Radiology and Fluoroscopic Imaging 

• Biplane (2)
• Monoplane (4)

Mammography

• Thomosynthesis (2)

Ultrasonic Imaging (17)

Conventional X-Ray Imaging

• Fixed (14)
• Mobile (7)

Nuclear Medicine

• PET-CT (2)
• PET-MRI (1)
• SPECT-CT (2)
• SPECT (2)
• DEXA-scanner 

Information & Communication Technolog

Support Equipment

Photo Equipment

Laboratory Facilities

• Preclinical (CIL)
• Radiochemical
• Chemistry
• Biology

Core Facilities

• Animal Imaging Facility (AMIE)
• ERGO
• Generation R
• Optical Imaging Center (OIC)

Internal collaborations.

External collaborations.

• The KWF project “Hitting the prostate cancer cell via PSMA-targeted radiotherapy: safer and better” (project leader Marion de Jong) was selected by the CBR (Dutch Central Office of Driving Licenses) to raise money during the 2018 marathon of Rotterdam. One of the researchers on the project met the CBR team after the finish and was symbolically handed the €4000 cheque. The research team would like to thank the CBR for the special and sportive efforts! This project was also highlighted in the KWF News Letter.
• Julie Nonnkens gave a lecture on ‘Tumor slices for the replacement of animal experiments’ during a public meeting to discuss the future of animal free research organized by the Dutch Society for the Replacement of Animal Testing (Proefdiervrij). Julie also gave a television and radio interview with Radio Rijnmond about the national campaign ‘Maak kanker kansloos’ of the Erasmus MC foundation/Daniel den Hoed foundation.
• During a public meeting on brain tumours (‘Publiekdsdag Hersentumoren’), Marion Smits gave a presentation on Radiology of brain tumours.
• In November, Daniel Bos and Kars Compagne were interviewed for an article on “Medial Pattern of Intracranial Carotid Artery Calcification Responds Best to Endovascular Therapy”, published on Neurovascular Exchange. 
• The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Suriname invited Arnout Alberts to give a lecture entitled “International developments in prostate cancer care”. Publicity concerning the lecture included both newspaper articles as well as a television and radio interview. The lecture itself was broadcasted live on the Suriname state television (GOV TV).
• A publication by Pauline Croll on new evidence showing a connection between diet and brain health, was highlighted by a number of news articles and interviews. 
• Tonya White organized an Education Workshop for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) in June 2018 in Singapore. The workshop focused on Population neuroscience: How to responsibly handle big data in the age of biobanks.
• In 2018, the results of the Minimal Invasive Autopsy (MIA) project were published. During the study, the research team, that include Annick Weustink, Ivo Wagensveld and Britt Blokker, looked at the possibilities of using imaging during autopsy as an alternative to traditional autopsy. A large number of national and international media outlets published articles on the trial. 

International 

• Martijn Starmans released WORC: Workflow for Optimal Radiomics Classification. WORC is an open-source python package for automated execution of full Radiomics pipelines. Give it a try!
• Laura Mezzanotte is a pioneer of Bioluminescence imaging and was interviewed by the Nature publishing journal LAB animal, for an article on this topic: “An inner light”.
• During the Science Hotel | Science Open for Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rebecca Steketee and Daniel Bos were given the opportunity to present their research and its link to society.
• Vikram Venktraghavan released pyEBM: a toolbox for event based models. This open source software implements several methods for data-driven disease progression modeling. Give it a try!

Honors & Awards

• Marion de Jong featured as “researcher of the week” on the KWF (Dutch Cancer Foundation) website regarding her research on better treatment for prostate cancer with radionuclides.
• Daniel Osses presented the abstract on “Screening and prostate cancer mortality: results of a unique cohort at 19 years of follow-up”, at the annual congress of the European Association of Urology, Copenhagen, Denmark 2018, which won the best poster price in its category, and second prize best abstract by resident.
• During the ISMRM in Paris, Renske Gahrmann received a Trainee/Educational Stipend.
• Two BIGR researchers were in the top 3 of the Netherlands Young eScientist awards: Esther Bron won the award and Gennady Roshchupkin was one of the runner-ups.
• Eric Meester won a prize for his oral presentation on imaging of LFA-1 in Atherosclerotic Plaques Using a Novel SPECT Radiotracer, during the MolMed day.
• Sorab Khatab was awarded the OARSI Young Investigator award for best rated abstract during the Osteoarthritis Liverpool, UK and an ICRS award for best rated abstract and best presentation at the International Cartilage Regeneration & Joint Preservation Society Focus Meeting in Milan, Italy. The awards were given for his work: “Mesenchymal stem cell secretome reduces pain and subchondral bone alterations in a mouse osteoarthritis model.”
• Danny Feijtel, Gabriela Doeswijk, Mark Konijnenberg, Dik van Gent, Marion de Jong and Julie Nonnekens’ work on ‘Radiobiology of targeted radionuclide therapy’ received a poster prize during the EACR conference Radiation Break-through: from DNA damage responses to precision cancer therapy in Oxford, UK (March 2018).
• The Benefit project, worked on by Theo van Walsum and Roman Peter, received the ITEA award on business excellence at the EUREKA Innovation Days, in Helsinki, Finland.
• Rianne van der Heijden received a Young Researchers Grant from the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR) which will allow her to continue her research as a post-doc on knee osteoarthritis.
• Susanne Eijgenraam received a best oral presentation award in MSK at the ECR 2018.
• Myriam Hunink received the 2018 Career Achievement Award from the Society of Medical Decision Making.
• Gerda Bortsova won the Best Scientific Paper Presentation Award 2018 within the topic “Chest” for her presentation “Automatic prediction of emphysema extent in low-dose CT by deep learning” at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna. 
• Gabriel Krestin was introduced as a new member of the National Academy of Medicine in October in Washington, DC.
• Arnout Alberts was granted the EAU Section of Urological Imaging (ESUI) Vision Award 2018 (most innovative imaging study published in urology in 2017) for research on “Characteristics of prostate cancer found at fifth screening in the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer Rotterdam: can we selectively detect high-grade prostate cancer with upfront multivariable risk stratification and magnetic resonance imaging? 
  A paper compiled by the Optical Molecular Imaging group, led by Clemens Löwik, in Nature Communication, was highlighted in the special collection on Light-controlled Biology Methods.

Grants

• Marleen de Bruijne received a VICI grant (NWO) of 1.5mlj euro. She aims to predict diseases by computer systems. The researchers will focus on the development of computer technologies based on large medical imaging databases in order to discover new patterns related to diseases like stroke and lung disease. With this method the risk to develop certain disease can be better predicted, treated and even prevented.
• Meike Vernooij received a ZonMW Memorabel Grant for the project “Amyloid pathology and vascular disease in focus: exploring interaction in two pathways towards neurodegeneration”.
• Tessa Brabander KWF (598.237 euro): Phase I dose escalation study to evaluate tolerability and safety of 225Ac-PSMA in patients with metastatic prostate cancer.
• Simone Dalm obtained a Grant from the Netherlands Cancer Society for the project “Click on Target”.
• Clemens Löwik acquired funding from the Netherlands Cancer Society for the project “Development of a radiolabeled necrosis-targeting probe for early detection of anti-cancer therapy efficacy and anti-cancer treatment: a new theranostic platform”.
• Aad van der Lugt and Wiro Niessen obtained a Horizon 2020 Grant for the innovative project “EUCanSHare: An EU-Canada joint infrastructure for next-generation multi-Study Heart research”.
• Mark Konijnenberg received a grant from Kansen for West for the project “Advancing Nuclear Medicine Petten Fieldlab”.
• Esther Warnert received a VENI grant to develop non-invasive MRI based methods to investigate tissue oxygenation in the brain.
• Clemens Löwik acquired funding, via an NWO middel-groot grant, for the newest Multi-Spectral Optoacoustic Tomogragh (MSOT).
• Hieab Adam obtained not only a VENI grant, but also a EUR grant and a Leading Fellowship grant.
• Susanne Eijgenraam received a Rising Star/ Invest in the Youth Grant.

Appointments

• Ricardo Budde was elected as editorial board member for “Radiology; Cardiothoracic Imaging” and as a member of the national working group “endocarditis 2.0: new approach to a classic disease” of the Kennisinstituut Federatie Medisch Specialisten.
• Alexander Hirsch was elected as member of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging CMR Certification Committee.
• Marion de Jong became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Daniel den Hoed funding body and Chair of the EANM Committee of Translational Molecular Imaging and Therapy. She was also initiator and co-organizer of the Molecule-to-man (M2M) Track at the EANM meeting. Marion was elected as a Board Member of the Post-graduate school Molecular Medicine and became member of the national “NWO-groot and middelgroot equipment committee”.
• Julie Nonnekens became Board member/secretary of the Netherlands society for Radiobiology and became scientific committee member of the Dutch Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (NVRO, since December 2018).
• Wiro Niessen became Chief Technology Officer of Health RI, a national initiative to build a health data infrastructure to support personalized medicine and health research in the Netherlands.
• Edwin Oei will be chairing the Local Organizing Committee of the Annual Meeting of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB), to be held in Rotterdam from October 3 to 5, 2019. In this role he also joined the Executive Board of ESMRMB. Edwin was also appointed as Rotterdam Knowledge Ambassador by Rotterdam Partners and as Associate Editor of the journal ‘Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery’.
• Saima Hilal was elected as Emerging leader of the World Heart Federation cohort on stroke and cardiovascular diseases.
• From 2018, Tonya White is serving as one of six deputy editors for the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).
• Myriam Hunink chaired the ESR Subcommittee on Referral Guidelines for Imaging.
• Roy Dwarkasing was appointed as a member of the LI-RADS International Working Group and attended the LI-RADS International Working Group at RSNA 2018. In this meeting members from all over the world were present to discuss LI-RADS dissemination and promotion of LI-RADS terminology in research and clinical care.
• Clemens Löwik was appointed as visiting Professor for the Department of Oncology, at CHUV and Ludwig Cancer Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Approx. 100 talented and motivated PhD students work at the department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine. A PhD student does his/her research for a specific research group at the department. Lots of research projects are in collaboration with other research groups/departments, and therefore PhD students can also have a shared appointment with other departments. A PhD student is supervised by one or more researchers and needs to visit the subcommittee of the Research Committee on average once a year.

For more general information, click here.