The main research line is “Imaging I³”: Infection, Inflammation, and (tumor)Immunology

Infection:

• Musculoskeletal: peripheral osteomyelitis, device-related infections such as prosthetic joint infections, diabetic foot infection, fracture-related infections

• Cardiovascular: endocarditis, device-related infections such as vascular graft infections, intravascular prosthetic material infections

• Sepsis/bloodstream infections: bacteremia, specific bacterial infections

• Fungal infections

• Infections in children

   

Inflammation:

• Amyloidosis

• Sarcoidosis

• Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS

• Atherosclerosis and vasculitis

• Rejection and PTLD after organ transplantation

• Inflammatory diseases in children

• Sports injuries

   

(Tumor)immunology:

• Imaging autoimmune reaction/checkpoints in tumors

• Imaging of lymphocytes

• Imaging of macrophages

Societal impact:

• Development of diagnostic and therapeutic flowcharts in infectious and inflammatory diseases

• Publication of several Dutch (NFU, NVNG) and European (EANM) guidelines/recommendations

• Development and implementation of new specific tracers in infectious and inflammatory diseases (IL-2, PD1/PDL1, sorbitol, labelled antibiotics, labelled antifungal drugs)

• Improvement of existing techniques for infection imaging (new protocols for white blood cell scintigraphy and FDG-PET)

• Role of nuclear medicine in therapy evaluation of infectious and inflammatory diseases and during/after immunotherapy

Besides this Imaging I³ research line, I also perform some research in the field of oncology (this is also the main differential diagnosis with infectious diseases in PET):

• Imaging of hormonal receptors (FES-PET, FDHT-PET)

• Imaging of brain tumors

• Imaging of apoptosis

• Imaging lymphomas

Other research tasks:

• Co-chair research Medical Imaging Center

• Responsible person for contract research Medical Imaging Center

• Coordinator of the research line Oncology, Infection and Transplantation

• Writing publications and grant applications

• Writing Dutch (NFU, NVNG) and European (EANM) guidelines/recommendations

• Reviewer of manuscripts

• Collaboration with many external centers (Netherlands, Europe and worldwide)