Award-winning student Rick Waasdorp is going for a PhD within Medical Delta

A ten for his graduation research, voted 'best graduate' of the 3mE faculty of TU Delft and, as it became clear this month, winner of the Philips Graduation Prize Technology for Healthcare Solutions from the KHMW. The world of science lies at the feet of research talent Rick Waasdorp. He opted for a PhD Medical Imaging at TU Delft for the scientific program Medical Delta UltraHB, under the supervision of Dr. David Maresca.

We spoke to Waasdorp about his current research, the collaboration with doctors and the naturalness with which young researchers look across disciplines. "I see interdisciplinary collaboration as normal."

In recent months you have received a lot of praise for your graduation research. Can you briefly explain what you researched?

"During my graduation I developed a new measurement method to monitor muscle functions. I did this by combining electromyography and ultrasound to measure muscle contractions with unparalleled time resolution.

Developments in the field of ultrafast ultrasound (superfast ultrasound, ed.) open new doors in various research fields, including muscle research. Because computers can process larger amounts of data faster and faster, we are able to make scans of organs and tissues with increasing accuracy and in real time. By combining electrophysiology with state of the art ultrasound technology, I was able to map the electrical waves that activate the muscles and the resulting muscle movement at the same time. Due to the high frame rate that ultrafast ultrasound provides, I was able to monitor muscle contraction down to the millisecond. This provided very interesting new insights."

What is special about your graduation research, is that you talked to doctors at an early stage. Why did you choose that approach?

"I really like it when my research leads to something and yields a direct result for healthcare. It was therefore a logical step for me to contact doctors at the LUMC and ask them about possible clinical applications. They provided insight into the medical process and I also followed a course to induce muscle contractions myself with electrical stimulation, so that I could measure muscle contractions under controlled conditions.

I asked the medical researchers at LUMC how these new measurement techniques can help them further and we discovered that research into muscular dystrophy could benefit from it. We may be able to monitor the clinical picture of people with Duchenne muscle disease without having to make painful and harmful movements. This method of data collection can also provide more insight into the course of the disease and thus contribute to better treatment."

When you graduate with a 10, the world is at your feet. Why did you choose science, and specifically a PhD research for a Medical Delta program?

During graduation, I experienced the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for ultrafast ultrasound imaging. The potential is enormous. Dr. David Maresca, one of the consortium members of the Medical Delta UltraHB scientific program, told me about the possibilities of measuring brain activity with ultrafast ultrasound. Many of my interests are reflected in the research project that I took on. The great thing about science is that the results will eventually become publicly available and shared with the whole world."

How can you tell that you are part of Medical Delta?

"The interdisciplinary collaboration is clearly visible. I have only just started my research, but will soon be conducting the first experiments and can therefore rely on the expertise at Erasmus MC. Within the scientific program we have a consortium meeting every month in which the members update each other. There I get the opportunity to ask researchers from other institutions and disciplines questions and to consult with them. The step to experts from other disciplines is small. Not only in content, but also as a network it is interesting to be part of this. we help each other with an exchange of expierence. I am currently mainly researching technologies, but for the clinical implementation it is good to have all those contacts now."

As a young researcher, how do you experience interdisciplinary collaboration?

"For me it is like something normal. I also see around me that there is more and more collaboration between disciplines. I also notice that it’s very important to me. I develop new technology, but I think it is important that this ultimately leads to an application for the brain, for muscles or for other organs."

Can you tell us something about your current research?

"I can't tell you everything about it yet, but it boils down to the fact that we want to be able to measure brain activities very accurately and in real time. My focus will initially be on obtaining ultrasound data with which we can use the processes in the brain during execution of different tasks. Such as arm or eye movements. This knowledge is very valuable for neuroscience and can be used, for example, to give people with paralysis control over a computer or robotic arm with their brains. I can take the measurements within Medical Delta to neuroscientists from Erasmus MC or other medical institutions.

If my research can contribute to providing direct insight into brain activities, that is a great result, but ultimately I would also like to contribute directly to clinical applications for this research."