- Are you inspired by health care challenges?
- Are you eager to work on new, cutting-edge, technological developments in the area of medical optics and ultrasound, and bring them to the clinic?
- Are you our next PhD-candidate in novel and advanced photoacoustic imaging for diagnostics and monitoring?
Job Description Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common and chronic joint disease. Worldwide it affects more than 10% of the people aged 60 years and older, being a major source of pain, disability, and socioeconomic cost. OA generally starts with cartilage damage, and it also involves other joint tissues, such as subchondral bone, ligaments and menisci, and the progression differs per patient. All of this presents clinicians with important challenges. Therefore, a new imaging method is needed that allows early diagnosis and reliable monitoring of OA, which is crucial to enable timely and effective interventions, help achieving better disease control, and postpone the most invasive interventions such as total joint arthroplasty.
Spectroscopic photoacoustic imaging (sPA) can reveal damage-related tissue degradation based on PA spectral contrast in the joint. In this project, the potential of sPA imaging to characterize various tissue damage related to OA progression will be explored. An advanced data processing tool (can be combined with DL methods) will be created and validated on human joint tissue samples. To move towards clinical translation, a realistic PA simulation framework for OA imaging (digital twin of the joint tissues) will be developed, the feasibility and requirements of an in vivo sPA imaging system will be investigated and a prototype for non-invasive OA imaging will be developed. It will accelerate the clinical translation of the PA technique and potentially improve the management of OA in the future.
The candidate will work on the development of a novel photoacoustic imaging system for OA imaging, using advanced optical and acoustic hardware based on a Fujifilm Visualsonics platform, developing a realistic PA simulation framework for joint imaging, optimizing/developing the algorithms (such as image reconstruction/compounding, clutter reduction, fluence/speed of sound correction) to improve the imaging quality towards final in vivo application. Besides, a mini-invasive PA arthroscope for OA imaging will be designed based on simulations.
The position will be based at the Photoacoustics & Ultrasound Lab Eindhoven (PULS/e) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of dr.ir. M. Wu, dr.ir. R.G.P. Lopata (head of PULS/e group) and dr. R.P.A. Janssen (Orthopedic knee surgeon at Maxima medical center). The PULS/e group consists of a multi-disciplinary and international team of researchers that work on novel imaging US techniques, photoacoustics, image reconstruction, functional imaging, and model-based image analysis. Within this project you will be closely collaborating with Maxima medical center and Fujifilm Visualsonics.
Next to the research described above, you will supervise MSc / BSc students that will work on projects within the scope of your own.