Brainwise with the Self-portrait app: Providing child patients with a meaningful translation of their test-results

This report delves into the challenging process of translating complex tests from the Child Brain Lab into a design that is both accessible and engaging for children. The Child Brain Lab, part of the Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital, conducts research on brain development to gain a better understanding of the course of brain disorders and...

A Living Lab for Flow: An architectural meta exploration on the optimal mental state for well-being

This Master's thesis project is conceived in two parts. <br/><br/>The first part is the research project and is titled &lt;&lt;The Art of Acquiring Flow&gt;&gt; where the study assesses an architect’s ability to experience ‘design flow’, during the ideation phase, based on the type of design tool utilized. In order to test the hypothesis, I...

A multi-organ-on-chip platform with integrated oxygen and TEER sensors for the brain-gut axis

Predicting the effects of drugs before human clinical trails is at the heart of drug discovery and screening processes. To overcome limitations of conventional models used in pre-clinical research stages, advancements in fabrication, microfluidics, tissue engineering and sensor development allow for platforms that ever more closely emulate human...

Recovering Quantitative Maps from Conventional Weighted MR Images using Deep Learning

Long acquisition times impede the routine clinical use of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI). qMRI quantifies meaningful tissue parameters in T1-, T2-, and PD-maps, as opposed to conventional (qualitative) weighted MRI (wMRI), which only visualises contrast between tissues. Although methods exist that generate synthetic wMRI from...

The design of a brain and tumor phantom: Focused on mimicking the stiffness of the brain and glioblastoma multiforme tumor tissue

Glioblastoma multiforme tumors (GBM) are the most frequent and aggressive brain tumor type and have a very low survival rate. In order to improve the patient’s outcome for a patient suffering from GBM the production of brain phantoms can be of great help. A brain phantom can be used for multiple purposes, such as neurological planning, training...

Dynamics of the transcriptome and proteome in regions of the brain differ considerably

Human brain research is advancing, facilitated by improved high-throughput techniques and systematically preservation of brain tissue in brain banks. Due to the complex organization and regulation of the brain, most studies only focus on a single aspect of healthy and diseased samples. This research integrates analyses of the transcriptome and...

The design of an anthropomorphic head phantom for neurosurgical planning, education and training

Neurosurgery is technically challenging because of the inaccessibility and sensitivity of the brain. The risk of complications for the patient is high and simulation-based training is therefore preferred. However, surgical training in cadavers and virtual reality is not satisfactory. A phantom is a model of organs or tissues consisting of tissue...

The Design of an Anthropomorphic Brain Phantom: Containing Ventricles

Brain, outside the body, will decay quickly, causing ex vivo studies to be difficult. Having a phantom model has a great beneficial value for numerous reasons. Phantoms are, among others, used in research centres, to validate new equipment, to develop biomechanical models or to test new treatment methods. They are representations of organs or...

Grey Matter Age Prediction as a Biomarker for Risk of Dementia: A Population-based Study

The gap between predicted brain age and chronological age could serve as biomarker for early-stage neurodegeneration and as potentially as a risk indicator for dementia. We assess the utility of this age gap as a risk biomarker for incident dementia in a general elderly population. The brain age is estimated from longitudinal brain magnetic...

HiveArcs - Visualizing genome co-expression data

The developing human brain is a complex process, governed by the human genome. Understanding this development process is the key to understanding not only the connections between genes and brain functioning, but can also advance knowledge about disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Autism. The BrainSpan transcriptional atlas, released in 2013 by the...