Post-operative radiotherapy is standard care for patients with brain metastases undergoing neurosurgery. Current image-guided radiotherapy requires sequential acquisition of CT and MRI scans used for dose planning, and manual delineation of the tumor and surrounding organs at risk.

The novel MRI-linac (MRL), a hybrid system consisting of an MRI and linear accelerator for radiation treatment, developed in our hospital, allows for online MRI-guidance during treatment delivery. In this MR-only workflow, the acquisition of a CT scan is omitted and replaced by a synthetic CT constructed from an MR image. Clinical implementation of such a workflow requires near real-time automatic segmentation of the tumor and of the organs at risk, as well as very fast synthesis of a pseudo-CT scan for real-time dose calculation and recalculation prior to every radiotherapy treatment.

As the successful candidate for this PhD position, you will develop deep learning techniques for segmentation of brain tumors as well as brain and other tissues that should be spared (organs at risk) using MR images. Moreover, you will develop algorithms to synthesize a CT from an MRI scan allowing MR-only radiotherapy treatments. Finally, you will implement real-time automatic dose calculations and recalculations into the workflow.

You are an outstanding candidate with an M.Sc. degree in biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence or comparable training, and a keen interest in medical image analysis and medical physics. You have a strong scientific background, programming experience and are highly motivated and independent. You are confident about working in an multidisciplinary team of medical specialists and engineers.

Fixed-term contract: temporary position for 4 years.

For this 100% post, the salary will start at € 2.279,- the maximum salary will be € 2.919,- corresponding with the salary scale for PhD candidates (OIO).

University Medical Centre Utrecht

With over 1,100 beds and more than 11,000 employees, the University Medical Center Utrecht is one of the largest academic health care centers in the Netherlands. Our aim is to improve. Our patients’ health, but also our students and employees. Whether you are a doctor or a business economist, a researcher or a SAP-specialist: working with us means having a job that matters, access to the best facilities and the opportunity to grow as a professional and contribute towards innovative health care.

Scientific research at the UMC Utrecht is rooted in the world around us. We listen to people; the wishes and needs of patients come first. Together with our national and international partners, we invest in innovation and research in order to ensure that our care remains of the highest quality. Focus is pivotal in this, which is why we have concentrated our research in six programs:

• Brain
• Infection & Immunity
• Circulatory Health
• Personalized Cancer Care
• RM & Stem Cells
• Child Health

http://www.werkenbijumcutrecht.nl/

the Image Sciences Institute

The research will be carried out at the Image Sciences Institute and the Department of Radiotherapy. The work requires close collaboration between image scientists, clinical physicists and radiation oncologists. You will be working in a multidisciplinary team of PhD candidates and PostDocs working in the field of image analysis and radiotherapy, as well as with a team of clinicians.