Achilleas Saava nominated with the Early Career Distinguished Presenter award at MRS Fall 2024

• Tuesday, 10 December 2024

Achilleas Saava , with friends and colleagues Charalampos Pitsalidis and Roisin Owens, organized a symposium (SB04) at MRS Fall 2024. 

He was also nominated with the Early Career Distinguished Presenter award.

He would like to thank all of his group members at therebootlab.org and his current and past colleagues at TU Delft | Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science and at the University of Cambridge for helping make this possible. Also a big thank you to the SB01 organizers, and the Materials Research Society for the nomination.

Bioelectronic Interfaces: Materials, Devices and Applications

• Wednesday, 6 November 2024

Just wrapped up an inspiring week at the Bioelectronic Interfaces: Materials, Devices and Applications in beautiful Limassol, Cyprus!

https://www.nanoge.org/CyBioEl/home

We enjoyed presentations from leading scientists about key advancements in bioelectronic medicine, advanced in vitro platforms, and innovative concepts like biohybrid interfaces and plant bioelectronics.

Symposium Organizers:

Achilleas Savva, TU Delft

Eleni Stavrinidou, Linkoping University

Dante Muratore gave an interview in La Republica

• Monday, 17 June 2024

Dante Muratore gave an interview in La Republica about his research and experience at the TU Delft.
Dante Muratore: I said no to Elon Musk to create a chip that will help those who have lost their sight "to see the stars again" - la Repubblica

Portrait of Medical Delta Professor Johan Frijns (appointed at EEMCS, Bioelectronics group)

• Friday, 16 February 2024

Portrait of Medical Delta Professor Johan Frijns 

More than 800,000 people in the Netherlands are hard of hearing. They suffer so much from hearing loss that it limits their daily lives. Prof. Dr. ir. Johan Frijns treats people with hearing loss, conducts research on hearing implants, and gladly shares his knowledge about electrical stimulation of the nervous system. "We shouldn't want to reinvent everything in every little corner. What we learn in one place, we can also use in another."

Johan Frijns is a professor of Otology and Physics of Hearing in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at LUMC. He heads the Center for Audiology and Hearing Implants Leiden (CAHIL) and the Cochlear Implant Rehabilitation Centre Leiden (CIRCLE). He was recently appointed as a Medical Delta professor with a position at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science at TU Delft.

Read more: Portrait and video Johan Frijns: “When a deaf child suddenly hears and learns to talk, this also has a huge impact on the people around him.” | Medical Delta

Artikel AD tinnitus

• Thursday, 11 January 2024

Onze hersencellen werken als elektronische netwerken en daar kan ik veel mee”, aldus professor Wouter Serdijn van de Sectie Bio-elektronica van de TU Delft. Serdijn zoekt naar een oplossing voor tinnitus. © Thierry Schut

Source (paywall): https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/elektrotechnisch-ingenieur-en-neurochirurg-denken-oplossing-voor-tinnitus-gevonden-te-hebben~abb033f4/

Read the full story here: Tinnitus.

Andrew Webb wins Huibregtsen Award for Affordable MRI Scanners

• Tuesday, 31 October 2023

High field MRI expert, Professor Andrew Webb of the Microelectronics department, and his Ugandan collaborator, Johnes Obungoloch, have been awarded the 2023 Huibregtsen Prize. Their notable achievement is the creation of an affordable, portable, and long-lasting MRI device tailored for brain imaging in developing nations.

Webb's team introduced a 'low-field MRI scanner' that boasts ease of transportation, maintenance, and ecological sustainability. Ever better, Webb’s new device is priced at just 1% of the typical MRI system. The brain scans generated by their MRI are instrumental in diagnosing curable diseases in underdeveloped regions, with the first model already operational in Uganda.

Highlighting its distinctive nature, the jury commended the initiative for merging top-tier technology development with suitability for developing regions. They also lauded the emphasis on knowledge dissemination and instruction.

The Huibregtsen Prize, founded in 2005 by The Evening of Science & Society Foundation board, is an annual award recognizing pioneering research projects with profound societal implications.
The accolade was handed over by the departing Minister of Education, Culture, and Science, Robbert Dijkgraaf, on 9 October at Pieterskerk, Leiden. Professor Webb was granted a €25,000 check and a bronze artwork from Wil van der Laan. Meanwhile, Obungoloch tuned into the event via a live stream from Uganda. In addition to the monetary prize and artwork, the duo also earned a workshop at the Lorentz Center in Leiden.

Gaat dit apparaatje tinnitus genezen?

• Wednesday, 11 October 2023

Een constante piep of ruis in je oren - om gek van te worden. Toch is er geen genezing voor mensen met tinnitus. Nog niet, want elektrotechnisch ingenieur Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft) laat het er niet bij zitten. Hij werkt aan een apparaatje dat tinnitus moet verhelpen. Hoe? Dat hoor je in deze aflevering van de podcast van de Universiteit van Nederland.

Vacancy for a Bioelectronics Support Engineer

• Friday, 6 October 2023

Join our dynamic team at Delft University of Technology's Section Bioelectronics in the Department of Microelectronics! As a Bioelectronics Support Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in enabling groundbreaking neuroscientific research and the development of cutting-edge neurotechnology applications.

Our Paper Awarded at the IEEE MetroAeroSpace 2023

• Wednesday, 21 June 2023

We are proud to announce that our paper, "Experimental Evaluation of Radar Waveforms for Spectral Coexistence Using the PARSAX Radar", the result of our research collaboration with the team from the University of Naples “Federico II”, has been recognized as the most outstanding paper of the Special Session on Metrology for Radar Systems presented at IEEE MetroAeroSpace 2023 (the award has been sponsored by MDPI Remote Sensing Journal). The paper was acknowledged for its experimental demonstration of radar operability in spectrally dense environments through innovative waveform design.

The award recognition will soon be posted on the official conference website.

SAFE/ProRISC conference 2023 in Delft

• Monday, 1 May 2023

On 10-11 July 2023 we have the SAFE/ProRISC conference in Delft. This is an annual conference rotating around the TU's in The Netherlands.

SAFE is dedicated to devices and technology, and ProRISC to circuits and systems. You can find more information on the website:

https://www.tudelft.nl/prorisc-safe

For PhD students, this is a great opportunity to meet colleagues from the other TU's, and also have fun. We only require an abstract and poster, so there is no problem with prior publication if you want to present the work at an international conference.

Graphene electrodes developed by ME researchers on Neurotech reports

• Wednesday, 5 April 2023

The article "Multilayer CVD graphene electrodes using a transfer-free process for the next generation of optically transparent and MRI-compatible neural interfaces", published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering (Nature), is featured in the February 2023 issue of Neurotech Reports. 

The electrodes in the study were fabricated at the Else Kooi Lab and are the product of a longstanding collaboration between the groups of Sten Vollebregt and Vasso Giagka. The article was selected to be featured on the journal's webpage in October 2022.

Webinar with Dr. Vasso Giagka "Translational Research for Neural Implants"

• Tuesday, 4 April 2023

This webinar will be hosted live and available on-demand

Monday, May 8, 2023, at 17:00

Implantable neurotechnologies already treat various disorders, including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and pain. As researchers develop new materials and technologies, the therapeutic potential of neural implants for other diseases and conditions grows. 

In this webinar brought to you by The Scientist, John Donoghue and Vasiliki (Vasso) Giagka will present their latest findings on applying clinical and technical developments to create new implantable devices for treating neurological disorders. 

Topics to be covered 

• Successes, challenges, and opportunities for brain computer interfaces (BCIs)
  • Accomplishments in human implantable BCIs over the last decades
  • Current capabilities for movement and communication
  • Challenges for clinically useful BCIs as medical devices
• Miniaturized and selective active neural interfaces
  • Active neural implants for bioelectronic medicine
  • Miniaturization of active neural implants
  • Multimodal neural interfaces

Register through the link

Squeaking, humming, buzzing. The discomfort of tinnitus

• Wednesday, 8 February 2023

A few years ago, the Bioelectronics group (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science) joined an international project on tinnitus called Tinnitus House. Delta phoned TU Delft principal investigator Professor Wouter Serdijn to hear about the progress.

2022 4TU.NIRICT Community Day, November 14

• Thursday, 20 October 2022

Identified are 3 themes around which we would like to bring NIRICT researchers together to discuss and to explore per theme the opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. The themes are related to the societal challenges we are currently facing and require interdisciplinary effort in order to be addressed effectively. We believe that productive discussions during the event could be instrumental in forming new research lines, but also project consortia around various national R&D investment programs addressing the knowledge and innovation agenda’s (KIAs) of the Netherlands (https://www.topsectoren.nl/missiesvoordetoekomst).

Themes of the day:
• Health and ICT People live longer, more healthcare is needed. Work pressure in healthcare is rapidly increasing. More data is collected by smart devices. How can the ICT community contribute solutions to keep our society healthy?
• Energy and ICT The current explosion of the energy prices shows that we are facing an unstable situation with respect to energy production and consumption. We produce more solar energy on one hand and consume more energy due to air conditioners and electric cars. We need smart solutions both in production and consumption. Moreover, due to its significant share in energy consumption, ICT systems from the end user devices to power-hungry data centers need to become more energy efficient.
• Agriculture and ICT We just had another summer with extreme heat waves and droughts. The climate changes we are facing have tremendous consequences for agriculture. The population is growing and the pressure on nature is increasing. What smart solutions do we see to deal with the challenges to keep our planet healthy and at the same time to keep the food production in line with the population growth?
The Community Day starts at 12:30hrs with a walk-in lunch. At 13:30hrs the official part will start with a number of short presentations, followed by several parallel sessions regarding the three themes of the day. You can indicate your preference on the registration form. Afterwards there will be a networking drink from 17:00-18:00hrs.

It would be great to welcome many of you on November 14th, because together we strengthen the ICT community of The Netherlands, so join us for the 4TU.NIRICT Community Day 2022, November 14, in Van der Valk Hotel Utrecht and register here by November 6, 2022.
Your data will only be used for registration and will be discarded within one week after the 4TU.NIRICT Community Day. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us: m.mommers@tue.nl

Sounds good: treating depression with ultrasound

• Wednesday, 14 September 2022

Physicians are desperate to find new and effective treatment options for chronic pain and depression. Tiago Costa is developing a novel targeted neuro-modulation treatment for depression, using focused ultrasound. His goal is to treat only brain areas that need attention, leaving other parts of the brain undisturbed.

Vasso Giagka on the Neural Implant Podcast

• Wednesday, 14 September 2022

Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions: Vasiliki Giagka on Neural Interface Packaging and why it's the most important

Technology for health: Keynote Wouter Serdijn en Christos Strydis at the Opening of the Academic Year

• Monday, 12 September 2022

In Delft and Rotterdam, Wouter Serdijn and Christos Strydis are collaborating on a network of sensors and stimulators for the body. By picking up signals and sending the brain a rapid wake-up call, they hope to be able to predict and prevent epileptic seizures.

Gravity grant awarded to research on brain interactions

• Tuesday, 3 May 2022

The goal of this research is to develop principles, devices and methods to take these interactions into account and thus understand more about brain disorders, as well as moods, emotions and compulsions.

The research project is called 'The Dutch Brain Interfaces Initiative' and is led by researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen. TU Delft will contribute to the development of computer models, and microfabrication technology for the development and validation of closed-loop control for neural prostheses. These prostheses can give us back lost senses and control, enabling us to bypass injuries and treat an unprecedented range of brain disorders, restoring a better quality of life for deaf, blind, paralyzed and mentally ill people. 

Ultimate applications of the multi-year research include the use of Deep Brain Stimulation on patients with motor and psychiatric disorders, the development of Brain-Computer interfaces that enable communication for people who cannot speak and the deployment of visual implants for the visually impaired and blind. Frans van der Helm and Wouter Serdijn are the leaders of the Delft research project. Frans van der Helm: 'The human brain is the ultimate technical challenge for engineers. It is great to be able to use our technical background and technical capabilities to contribute to a better understanding of, and better interaction with, the human brain.'

The Dutch Brain Interfaces Initiative is the combination of a platform with computer, software and hardware elements, aimed at facilitating closed-loop manipulations in the long term, and brain monitoring in a naturalistic environment, with a neuroscience research program with 3 main objectives: to increase the understanding of the general principles of brain dynamics, to develop strategies to influence, restore or improve those dynamics and the cognitive function they support, and to understand the neural basis of behavior under naturalistic conditions.

Project proposal UPSIDE, successful in the EU call EIC Pathfinder challenge

• Friday, 22 April 2022

The multi-disciplinary and international consortium led by Dr. Tiago Costa, includes ME department PIs Dr. Dante Muratore and Prof. Dr. Ir. Wouter Serdijn, and partners from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the USA. With a total budget of 4.2 M€, the consortium will use the combined expertise in bioelectronics, brain-machine interfaces, focused ultrasound, neurobiology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry to achieve a technological breakthrough towards a personalized treatment for depression.

Project description:

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting 300 million people with a lifetime prevalence of 15%. Approximately one third of all MDD patients fail to respond to currently established treatments based on medication and psychotherapy, thus falling into the category of Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) patients. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (tRMS), Vagus nerve stimulation, deep brain stimulation (DBS) and transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) still show poor spatial resolution (ECT, tRMS, tFUS) or low network coverage (VNS, DBS), with average remission rates in clinical trials still lower than 30 %. Apart from the existing stimulation hurdles, reliable biomarkers for depression are needed as a diagnostic tool, and, in the case of neuromodulation-based treatments, to determine the stimulation efficacy and allow for personalized treatment. The UPSIDE project aims to overcome the limitations above by developing a hybrid epidural brain interface (EBI) for high-precision ultrasound neuromodulation (eFUS) and high-fidelity neural recording (eREC) for the personalized treatment of depression.

Happy Secretaries Day!!!

• Thursday, 21 April 2022

Our congratulations and best wishes!

NWA-ORC project "OBSeRVeD" with co-applicant Sten Vollebregt and Frans Widdershoven granted

• Wednesday, 23 March 2022

A total of 28 consortia will work in interdisciplinary teams on research that will bring both scientific and societal breakthroughs within reach. The entire knowledge chain and societal organisations, including public as well as private parties, will work closely together in these projects. The projects have received funding in the third round of the Dutch Research Agenda programme Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC).

The ME department plays a lead role in one of the funded consortia:

OBSeRVeD - Odour Based Selective Recognition of Veterinary Diseases

Coordinator: dr. ir. C.A.J. (Cas) Damen - Saxion Hogeschool
Affiliated TU Delft researchers:  dr. ir. Sten Vollebregt (WP-lead) and prof. dr. ir. Frans Widdershoven, EEMCS faculty,  dr. Monique van der Veen – AS faculty

When chickens in a farm become infected or have parasites, specific odours are produced. A cross-disciplinary team will combine innovative sensors, affinity layers, and machine learning to develop and test an electronic nose. This sensitive system can recognize a fingerprint of Volatile Organic Compounds and thus recognise specific diseases at an early stage, when (preventive) measures are most effective. In this project, veterinary health, industry, science professionals and societal organisations will collaborate towards developing a practically applicable poultry health monitoring system to improve chicken and public health, general welfare and reduce antibiotics/chemicals use and the environmental impact of livestock farming.

Lees meer: TU Delft news

Or in English on the NWO website: NWO news

Neurotechnology development needs a multi-disciplinary environment to flourish

• Tuesday, 8 March 2022

A blogpost in Open Neurosurgey by Dr. Vasiliki (Vasso) Giagka, PhD, Assistant Professor of Bioelectronics, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

TU Delft start wereldwijd onderzoek naar oorsuizen (tinnitus)

• Monday, 7 March 2022

Wereldwijd onderzoek naar oorsuizen (tinnitus)

Veel mensen hebben last van een continu geluid in hun hoofd. Tinnitus heet dat. Omdat er eigenlijk nog te weinig bekend is over de oorzaken, is er een wereldwijd onderzoek gestart onder de noemer ‘Tinnitus House’. De hoop is dat er uiteindelijk een remedie wordt gevonden.

Tinnitus wordt ook wel oorsuizen genoemd. Al is die laatste omschrijving een understatement, want de geluiden die sommige mensen horen zijn vergelijkbaar met een vrachttrein die door je hoofd raast. Tinnitus hoor je in een stille ruimte, maar ook met oordoppen op. Dan lijkt het alsof er toch geluid is, maar die waarneming komt van binnenuit. Die geluiden heb je in alle vormen: van zacht tot hard, van hoog tot laag, van continu tot af en toe, in één oor of in beide oren.

Eén op de drie volwassenen ervaart in het dagelijks leven wel eens een duidelijke toon in een oor gedurende een aantal seconden. Ook de zogeheten ‘disco-tinnitus’ is je wellicht bekend: als je oren een tijdlang zijn blootgesteld aan veel lawaai, is er eenmaal in de stilte een ruis of fluittoon te horen in je oren. Uiteindelijk komt hierna gelukkig bij de meeste mensen het gehoorsysteem weer tot rust en dan verdwijnen de geluiden. Echter, veel blootstelling aan harde geluiden kan ertoe leiden dat de ruis of fluittoon permanent te horen blijft.

Overgevoeligheid voor geluid

Heb je last van een van onderstaande vormen van overgevoeligheid voor geluid? Dan kun je ook last hebben van tinnitus.

• Misofonie. Extreme hekel aan specifieke geluiden, zoals bijvoorbeeld blaffende honden of smakgeluiden.

• Hyperacusis. Mensen die hieraan lijden zijn overgevoelig voor vaak hoge harde geluiden die als onaangenaam en pijnlijk worden ervaren. Denk aan gillende kinderen, of een alarm dat afgaat.

• Phonofobie: Hardnekkige, abnormale en niet-realistische angst voor geluid. Deze mensen zijn bang dat normale geluiden hun gehoor beschadigen

Tinnitus is zelden te behandelen

Wat iemand met tinnitus dus hoort, zijn schijngeluiden. Die ontstaan doordat het gehoororgaan of de zenuwbanen – zonder dat er geluiden zijn – signalen doorgeven die in de hersenen de betekenis ‘geluid’ krijgen. Waardoor ontstaat zoiets?

• Beschadigingen in het laatste gedeelte van het gehoororgaan of veranderingen in de zenuwbanen of hersenen kunnen een oorzaak zijn.
• Ook spiertjes rond het oor die zich samentrekken of problemen in het middenoor kunnen voor tinnitusklachten zorgen.
• Andere mogelijke oorzaken zijn afwijkingen aan de bloedvaten in het hoofd en een hoge bloeddruk, die een kloppend of tikkend geluid in het ritme van de hartslag veroorzaken

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT)

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) is één van de weinige wetenschappelijk onderbouwde therapieën voor tinnitus en overgevoeligheid voor geluid. Je leert het hinderlijke geluid van het oorsuizen naar de achtergrond te drukken door het als een normaal geluid te beschouwen waarmee gewoon te leven is. Het maakt gebruik van het feit dat je hersenen ook in staat zijn om bijvoorbeeld het zoemende geluid van een koelkast te negeren.

Deze therapie wordt onder andere aangeboden bij audiciens als Beter Horen en Schoonenberg Hoorsupport.

Gehoorverlies bij tinnitus

Naast de irritante geluiden hoort bij tinnitus ook vaak gehoorverlies. En nog vervelender: tinnitus is helaas zelden te behandelen met geneesmiddelen of een medische ingreep. Klachten kunnen wel wat worden verminderd door de aandacht voor de geluiden in het hoofd te verplaatsen naar bijvoorbeeld andere geluiden.

Hoortoestel met tinnitusmaskering

Er zijn hoortoestellen op de markt die een ruis of andere prettige geluiden genereren, zoals bijvoorbeeld geruis van de zee. Heb je behalve tinnitus ook last van behoorlijk gehoorverlies boven een bepaalde waarde (de audicien kan dit meten), dan kan dit een uitkomst zijn. Een nadeel van de maskering, is dat je hierdoor niet went aan je eigen tinnitusgeluid.

Wereldwijd tinnitusonderzoek

Omdat er eigenlijk nog te weinig bekend is over tinnitus is er een wereldwijd onderzoek gestart onder de noemer ‘Tinnitus House’. Dit onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd door de Stichting BrainInnovations onder supervisie van de Technische Universiteit Delft in samenwerking met de Universiteit van Regensburg (Duitsland), Trinity College Dublin (Ierland) en de University of Otago (Nieuw-Zeeland) en mede gefinancierd door de Stichting TinnitusFree. Het doel is om het tinnitusonderzoek een nieuwe dimensie te geven door (big) data-analyse systematisch te testen met klinische trials.

Meewerken aan het onderzoek naar tinnitus?

Heb je last van tinnitus en wil je meewerken aan dit onderzoek? Op de site van Tinnitus House is meer informatie te vinden over tinnitus en over dit onderzoek. Ook kun je je daar abonneren op hun nieuwsbrief.

Meer informatie over tinnitus vind je ook in het boek Eerste hulp bij oorsuizen van Olav Wagenaar.

Tiago da Costa appointed as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

• Monday, 28 February 2022

The primary goal of the journal is to bridge the unique scientific and technical activities of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society to a wide variety of related areas such as:

• Bioelectronics
• Implantable and wearable electronics like cochlear and retinal prosthesis, motor control, etc.
• Biotechnology sensor circuits, integrated systems, and networks
• Micropower imaging technology
• BioMEMS
• Lab-on-chip Bio-nanotechnology
• Organic Semiconductors
• Biomedical Engineering
• Genomics and Proteomics
•  Neuromorphic Engineering
• Smart sensors
• Low power micro- and nanoelectronics
• Mixed-mode system-on-chip
• Wireless technology
• Gene circuits and molecular circuits
• System biology
• Brain science and engineering: such as neuro-informatics, neural prosthesis, cognitive engineering, brain computer interface
• Healthcare: information technology for biomedical, epidemiology, and other related life science applications.               

Home | IEEE CAS (ieee-cas.org) 

More information on Tiago https://www.tmlcosta.com/

Dante Muratore appointed Associate Editor for TCAS-2

• Tuesday, 15 February 2022

Dante Muratore, assistant professor in the Bioelectronics group, was recently appointed as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II.

Congratulations, Dante!

Heart rhythm expert Natasja de Groot: ‘Every heart is different’

• Friday, 4 February 2022

The electrodes in the display cabinet show the technical developments over the last 20 years. The oldest one looks like a kind of small shower head from which four cables emerge, ending in computer mouse-sized plugs. Natasja de Groot used it during her PhD research on heart rhythm disorders in Leiden. The newest electrode is a wafer-thin strip to which three metres of multilayer flat cable are attached to read out the 192 channels simultaneously. The cable was made at TU Delft in the Bioelectronics group of Prof. Wouter Serdijn (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science).

Full article;  Heart rhythm expert Natasja de Groot: 'Every heart is different’ (tudelft.nl)

Altijd geld bij de hand, met een betaalchip onder je huid

• Friday, 17 December 2021

In de onstuitbare opmars van het contactloos betalen zet een Pools bedrijf de volgende stap: een betaalchip onder de huid, geen apparaat meer nodig. Wie wil dat? Brigitte heeft er al een. De technologie is echter niet wereldschokkend, zegt Wouter Serdijn, hoogleraar bio-elektronica in Delft. Artikel in de Volkskrant, d. 17 december 2021, door Enith Vlooswijk.

Portret series new Medical Delta professors - Wouter Serdijn

• Thursday, 9 December 2021

For people with heart, nerve and brain disorders, bioelectronic medicine can make a significant difference. Professor Wouter Serdijn works on these tiny devices. He is a professor at TU Delft and, thanks to Medical Delta, now at Erasmus MC as well. "Technical disciplines often use objective measures, while no two people are the same. It is therefore important to include the subjective side in the design."

In the video below, Wouter Serdijn tells about his Medical Delta professorship:

"I have always worked together a lot, but with my appointment in Rotterdam this has become more formalised," says Serdijn. "I now also have the 'right' to walk around there and am part of the information flow. This structure fits in well with how I am used to working. Not starting from existing pigeonholes, but working together at an umbrella level. Medical Delta is a bundle of great people, both technical, medical and clinical-academic. The engineer, medical scientist and therapist form a triangle. Together they can develop what is best for a patient."

How did your interest in the medical field emerge?

"For my graduation project, I worked on hearing aids together with a technology company. I experienced that something that met the technical specifications perfectly, could be totally unpleasant to listen to, and thus collided with the boundaries of the technical domain. Technical disciplines often assume objective measures, while no two people are the same and an individual person will be different tomorrow. It is therefore important to include the subjective side in the design.

How do you contribute to medical science with your knowledge of bioelectronics?

"I do not know exactly how the body works, but I can help measure, examine and control it. I can read and write nerve tracts. One example we are working on is helping people with paralysis regain their posture when sitting or standing and a rudimentary form of walking. This can now be done mainly with a wheelchair or other aids. But I want to know how we can re-energize their own muscles that are still intact but no longer controlled. How can we restore the connection between the brain and muscles? We are about to start clinical trials for this.

I also want to contribute to implantable technology that someone can wear invisibly as much as possible. For example, the so-called cochlear implant. This device enables a deaf person to hear and therefore to develop speech. But these implants still have an external part. You have to take it off when you go swimming or take a shower, for example, and then you don't hear anything anymore. I want to improve that. Though you can engage in conversations with this implant, you cannot listen to music. That can even be a very unpleasant experience. I think that is a shame; not being able to enjoy music is truly a loss. I want to tackle that as well."

How do you see Medical Delta in the future?

"In ten years, Medical Delta will be a scientific plateau. With connections and prestige in The Netherlands, Europe and perhaps the rest of the world. It will be the nerve centre of a lot of activities. The educational component also plays an important role, for example, with the clinical technology degree programme. Very good things and people are already coming out of this and I have high expectations of them. Because science is one part, but training new talent in the combined disciplines, that is the multiplier. Each year, we now have almost a hundred new graduates. They will soon have a greater impact than the Medical Delta professors of today. They are the future."

What is your advice for successful collaboration?

"Stay connected with where you originate from. That is where your value and your strength lies. You have to build a bridge, but stay true to what you are good at. Also, in collaboration, there must be a genuine mutual interest and you must both benefit from it. If you go up to someone and say 'I need this piece of technology from you' or 'this technology needs to go into a patient', it doesn't work. It takes time to understand what is happening on the other side and what the problems are. You also have to find a common language. With me, for example, everything is straight. The components, my diagrams. In biology, everything is curved, for example, cells, tissues and organs. You have to find a way of dealing with it. It is in the shared fascination with the problem that we find each other."

Which other researcher surprised you?

"Multiple researchers, but Chris de Zeeuw of Erasmus MC keeps surprising me. It is an important reason for choosing his department for my second appointment as a professor. He is an inspiring leader. He has great scientific knowledge and knows how to create a group and offer opportunities. He sees the importance of other disciplines for his own and was perhaps generation zero of Medical Delta."

This article is part of a series in which we highlight the nine new Medical Delta professors. Click here for the other portraits that have been published so far. Wouter Serdijn's research contributes to scientific programs, including, including Medical NeuroDelta: Ambulant Neuromonitoring for Prevention and Treatment of Brain Disease and Medical Delta Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab.

Three Medical Delta professors in micro electronics department

• Wednesday, 3 November 2021

On November 2, nine professors were simultaneously inaugurated as 'Medical Delta professor' at Leiden University, LUMC, TU Delft, Erasmus University and/or Erasmus MC. Among which ME professor Wouter Serdijn and part time professors Natasja Groot and Andrew Webb. With an appointment at at least two of these five academic institutions, they combine technology and healthcare in their professorship.

The nine professors have each earned their spurs in research at the intersection of health and technology. Examples include the use of new techniques to determine the cause of cardiac arrhythmia, how cartilage can be repaired using technology, and how e-health can help with rehabilitation or prevention of illness. The official inauguration follows their earlier appointment as Medical Delta professors. During the inauguration, the professors presented their research and answered questions from young researchers.

See more: https://www.medicaldelta.nl/en

Online conference Neural Interfaces and Artificial Senses (NIAS)

• Wednesday, 1 September 2021

Since 1958 when the first pacemaker was implanted in humans, bioelectronics devices have been increasingly used to interface with different types of tissue, monitor and interact with biological activity. During our continuous endeavors to better study sophisticated neuronal systems we have become more capable of diagnosing and treating various disorders. We are currently emerging in an era where bioelectronic devices are becoming smaller, less invasive and safer, which in turn is being paralleled with new therapies for a vast range of neurological and auto-immune diseases. This opens exciting possibilities for the future, from cutting-edge technology for brain-machine-interfaces with unprecedented functionality, artificial organs and augmented senses that can change the way we perceive the world, to a more human way of interactions with robots.

Topics to be covered by the conference: • Bioelectronic devices • Electroceuticals/Bioelectronic medicine • Neuronal interfaces and implantable electronics • Materials at the interface with biology • Neuronal mechanisms and clinical applications • Artificial visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile sensory systems.

Asli Yelkenci wins CadenceLIVE Europe 2021 award

• Friday, 27 August 2021

Asli Yelkenci is the winner of the CadenceLIVE Europe 2021 under the category of “Master Thesis Award for the Best Design using Cadence tools” with her master thesis done at Delft University of Technology under the supervision of Virgilio Valente, Section Bioelectronics.

Her thesis title is “A 16-Channel CMOS Reconfigurable Unit for Simultaneous In-Vitro Microelectrode Array (MEA) and Current-Clamp Measurements” which aims to gain insight into the correlation between electrical activities of a population of cells and single-cell activity. She will present her work during the online event CadenceLIVE Europe 2021 on 19th October.

You can register for the event and see the celebratory video via the link below.

The rising stars of the TU Delft, featuring Dante Muratore

• Tuesday, 8 June 2021

After his PhD in what he calls “hardcore analogue microelectronics”, rising star Dante Muratore knew he wanted to continue his career working on systems that are closer to an actual application. A postdoc position at Stanford University, in which he worked on the electronics for an artificial retina to treat medical conditions leading to the loss of vision, brought him just that. Then, wanting to come back to Europe and to continue doing bioelectronics at the highest level possible, an opening at TU Delft crossed his path. ‘It was the easiest choice I ever made,’ he says.

Read more about Dante in the link below!

Ultrasound for microimplants – enabling personalized medicine with wireless charging

• Thursday, 27 May 2021

Treatment of chronic autoimmune diseases is no longer limited by the expensive drugs and undesirable side effects. Neuromodulation has been shown to be effective in treating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic headaches, asthma or Parkinson's disease. To enable the technology for widespread clinical application, researchers at Fraunhofer IZM are developing a new generation of microimplants as part of the EU Moore4Medical project. These highly miniaturized devices have a special feature: the implants can be charged entirely wirelessly using ultrasound waves.

Assistant professor Tiago Lopes da Costa (Bio electronics) receives the ‘early career HFSP research grant’

• Thursday, 1 April 2021

Abstract

Cellular communication is mediated by voltage-gated, ligand-gated and mechanosensitive ion channels. Tools for modulating neuronal communication based on focused ultrasound (FUS) were developed to overcome fundamental limitations in optogenetics, combining non-invasive approaches and high spatial resolution without the need for genetic modification of neurons. Yet, little is known about the fundamental mechanisms of how focused ultrasound waves influence the finely tuned interplay of ion channels and lipid bilayers. How does the frequency and intensity of the ultrasound wave affects the lipid bilayer and different types of ion channels? What is the physical mechanism that governs the triggering of ion channel activity? These questions remain unanswered, with existing hypothesis limited by the spatio-temporal resolution of traditional optical, electrophysiology and ultrasound tools, which prohibit observations at the single ion channel level. To answer these questions we hypothesize that, if there would be a way to monitor effects of the FUS on the lipid bilayer and single ion channels with high temporal resolution, one should be able to monitor ultrasound-evoked oscillating current responses informing on ultrasound neuromodulation mechanisms. Hence, the aim of this proposal is to develop a concurrent experimental and computational approach, where state-of-the-art ultrasound and current read-out devices enabling high-bandwidth electrophysiology are matched with computational electrophysiology simulations. This will allow us for the first time to match the frequency of the focused ultrasound with the bandwidth of single ion channel recordings and the length of the computer-based simulations. We will focus our efforts in three aims, where Aim1 will establish the recording systems and simulations using model membranes alone and a mechanosensitive model channel. In Aim2 we will develop a recording platform integrating US-stimulation and high bandwidth recordings in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, extending our efforts on non-mechanosensitive channels. In Aim3, we will combine the gained knowledge from Aims 1 and 2 to focus on mechanosensitive channel that are hypothesized to be involved in neuromodulation.

"Tech for Health" featuring Natasja de Groot

• Sunday, 28 March 2021

Please donate to our research on better understanding of cardiac arrhythmia

Profcast with Prof. Wouter Serdijn

• Thursday, 18 March 2021

Or visit this link

Webinar with dr. Vasso Giagka: "Lowering the Barrier for Customized Micro Systems in Medical Applications"

• Tuesday, 9 March 2021

Webinar: "Lowering the Barrier for Customized Micro Systems in Medical Applications" Dear EUROPRACTICE member, We are delighted to invite you to a webinar organized by EUROPRACTICE together with flanders.health dedicated to lowering the barrier for customized micro systems in medical applications, which will take place online on March 24, 2021, from 14:00 to 16:00 CET. If you have been following the trends in medical innovations in recent years, you know that microelectronic solutions are revolutionizing the MedTech industry and improving the quality of delivered healthcare and thus patient life tremendously. Whether it is artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), or sensing, microelectronic systems play a key role in accelerating these trends in the medical world. For MedTech companies, it is important that microelectronic systems can be customized, but typically this comes at a high cost.

This is where EUROPRACTICE comes in. The consortium lowers the barrier for customized microsystems by providing affordable access to design tools, fabrication services, and training. If you are interested in learning more about how customized microsystems can make the difference for your medical application, then invest 2 hours of your time to learn about EUROPRACTICE and its affordable services. In this webinar, we will particularly zoom in on Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and Photonic Integrated Circuits, and how those can be fabricated and integrated in microsystems for medical applications. The latter will be illustrated by several testimonials/case studies presented by both academia and industry.

Webinar Agenda

1. Introduction by flanders.health

2. “Overview of Micro Systems in Medical Applications and how EUROPRACTICE can lower the barrier to technology access” - Romano Hoofman (imec)

3. Case Studies

Steve Stoffels (Pulsify Medical) – “Pulsify’s ultrasound monitoring patch: future medical grade wearables enabled by custom components.”

Jan-Willem Hoste (Antelope Dx) – “Antelope Diagnostics: Bringing photonic chip technology to a consumer market”

Pieter Harpe (TU Eindhoven) – “Custom microelectronics for ambulatory pregnancy monitoring and ultrasound catheters”

Vasiliki Giagka (TU Delft) – “Microelectronic chips for bio-electronic medicine: Engineering long-lasting and spatially selective active neural implants”

Bob Puers (KU Leuven) – “Concept for a high resolution neural interface with polymer-CMOS hybrid interconnects”

4. Q&A

Register https://share.hsforms.com/1sMh30WWDQzi-2-_qMcq9OQ42q9f?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=114173729&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_J0UTBpWNtB6-mAe-UvA_dkxZRlerg6ZC5tgyAS8t3UFTXI7bZqdR5oHS-50jKN_SVQoHXjUVVGCmXsr2KSch9lKtT6g&utm_content=114173729&utm_source=hs_email

INESC MN 2021 Seminar Series - Dr. Tiago Costa, March 5, 16.00 PM

• Thursday, 4 March 2021

Neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death, worldwide. Still, a paradigm exists in the available therapies: while pharmaceutical drugs are non-invasive but have poor precision and low effectiveness in the long term, therapies based on implantable electrical stimulators have high precision but are also highly invasive, which reduces patient eligibility. For the first time, a minimally invasive and precise neuromodulation modality is emerging through low intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU). However, the hand-held form-factors of existing ultrasound technology, together with its spatial resolution still being 10x lower than implantable electrodes, are hampering advances in both fundamental neuroscience research and the translation to the clinic. In this talk, I will describe my research on stand-alone ultrasonic microchips, by exploring the co-design and integration of CMOS circuits and piezoelectric materials. With massive miniaturization, focused ultrasound can be delivered through more efficient methods (wearable, injectable) while supporting higher ultrasound frequencies towards higher spatial resolution. These advances will contribute to a new generation of ultrasound technology to bring LIFU neuromodulation to the forefront of neuroscience and neurology.

To register see link below:

https://sites.google.com/site/inescmn/home/news

Cardiac mapping of very young children reveals conduction disorders related to atrial fibrillation

• Friday, 8 January 2021

Research of Medical Delta professor prof. dr. Natasja de Groot (Erasmus MC and TU Delft)

Delft Bioengineering Institute awards Tiago Costa and Massimo Mastrangeli with 20KEUR grants

• Wednesday, 16 December 2020

Dr. Tiago Costa (BE) and Dr. Massimo Mastrangeli (ECTM) have been awarded grants of 20KEUR by the Delft Bioengineering Institute (BEI) to pursue their research projects on ultrasound-based regeneration of neuronal circuits and medical implants to investigate cell mechanobiology, respectively.
Their multidisciplinary project proposals, conceived to bridge expertise among different departments within TU Delft, are among the 5 selected for the grants out of the 13 total submissions received by the BEI in response to their first call for proposals.
The projects will be run respectively in collaboration with Dr. Dimphna Meijer (TNW/BN) and Dr. Mohammad J. Mirzaali (3mE/BM).
Below are short summaries of the projects.

Regenerating neuronal circuits using ultrasound

People suffering from neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis, have impaired neuronal circuits. Generation of new neuronal circuits by using a patient’s own stem cells may prove helpful in treating the disease. One of the difficulties in inducing neurons from stem cells, is the low efficiency rate we are able to achieve so far. In this project, BEI PIs Tiago Costa of Microelectronics (EWI) and Dimphna Meijer of Bionanoscience (TNW) join forces to explore the use of ultrasound for effectively building active neuronal networks from stem cells.

Project title: SoundCircuit: Regeneration of neuronal circuits using ultrasound
BEI PIs: Tiago Costa (EWI/ME), Dimphna Meijer (TNW/BN)

Medical implants to investigate cell mechanobiology

In order to study the cell’s behavior and differentiation, we need to be able to measure the mechanical, electrical, and biochemical signals that are dynamically transmitted throughout the cells. This requires the creation of biomaterial models equipped with different sensor types. In this project, BEI PIs Mohammad J. Mirzaali of Biomechanical Engineering (3mE) and Massimo Mastrangeli of Microelectronics (EWI) will team up to design, fabricate and test the proof-of-concept for medical implants equipped with force sensors that can reach a sensitivity level of one micronewton, so the mechanobiology of cells can be effectively investigated.

Project title: Sixth Sense Biomaterials
BEI PIs: Mohammad J. Mirzaali (3mE/BM), Massimo Mastrangeli (EWI/ME)

Read the full story on the TU Delft page.

Success!

Microimplants: electricity instead of pills

• Monday, 30 November 2020

Interview in MEDICA Magazine with Prof. Vasiliki Giagka, Group Leader "Technologies of Bioelectronics", Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM and Assistant Professor of Bioelectronics, Delft University of Technology

New sensor chips; low-cost, smart and efficient

• Wednesday, 28 October 2020

In a greenhouse, cucumbers are growing beautifully. A grower is cultivating them under the most favourable conditions, closely monitoring the precise amount of water they need and whether the temperature is optimal, to ensure that the cucumbers that end up on your plate are juicy, flavoursome and green. The grower’s job is by no means carefree, however. What if the crop is blighted by some disease? One of the strategies that researchers are working on to prevent this involves an “electronic nose”. All plants, cucumbers included, emit a scent. An electronic nose can immediately detect whether something is wrong. The same technique can be applied in a chicken coop or cowshed. As soon as a disease breaks out, the electronic nose will detect it and give a warning.

For complete article;

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/stories/articles/new-sensor-chips-low-cost-smart-and-efficient/

Treating your disorder with electronic medicines

• Thursday, 15 October 2020

Increasing numbers of people now have a chip in their body which they can use to make payments or check in to public transport. “It sounds futuristic, but the technology is not that extraordinary”, explains Prof. Wouter Serdijn. “My dog has something similar.”

SSCS WYE Webinar

• Tuesday, 4 August 2020

Webinar: To Academia, or to Industry, That is the Question. Presented by: Kofi Makinwa and Shin-Lien Lu

Abstract:

REGISTER TODAY!

Moore4Medical kicks off

• Thursday, 16 July 2020

The ECSEL Joint Undertaking Moore4Medical kicked off last June, 2020 with the overarching objective to accelerate innovation in electronic medical devices. Moore4Medical is masterminded by prof. Ronald Dekker (Philips Research & ECTM) and sees important involvement and vast opportunities for TU Delft’s Microelectronics department.

The project addresses emerging medical applications and technologies that offer significant new opportunities for the Electronic Systems & Components (ECS) industry, including: bioelectronic medicines, organ-on-chip, drug adherence monitoring, smart ultrasound, radiation free interventions and continuous monitoring. The new technologies will help fighting the increasing cost of healthcare by reducing the need for hospitalisation, helping to develop personalized therapies, and realising intelligent point-of-care diagnostic tools.

Moore4Medical will bring together 66 selected companies, universities and institutes from 12 countries who will develop open technology platforms for these emerging fields to help them bridge “the Valley of Death” in shorter time and at lower cost. Open technology platforms used by multiple users for multiple applications with the prospect of medium-to-high volume markets are an attractive proposition for the European ECS industry. The combination of typical MedTech and Pharma applications with an ECS style platform approach will enhance the competitiveness for the emerging medical domains addressed in Moore4Medical. With value and IP moving from the technology level towards applications and solutions, defragmentation and open technology platforms will be key in acquiring and maintaining a premier position for Europe in the forefront of affordable healthcare.

TU Delft’s Microelectronics department leads two of the six workpackages represented in Moore4Medical: the Implanatable Devices workpackage, led by Dr. Vasiliki “Vasso” Giagka (BE & Fraunhofer IZM), and the Organ-on-Chip workpackage, led by Dr. Massimo “Max” Mastrangeli (ECTM). Both workpackages will see the interaction and contribution of many world-class industrial and academic players to develop respectively bioelectronic medicines and smart multi-well plate platforms, and will provide a rich opportunity to capitalize on and further expand the standing expertise of the BE and ECTM groups of the department.

We wish Moore4Medical success!

Andra Velea wins Audience Award of the Young Medical Delta Thesis Awards

• Friday, 10 July 2020

We are proud to announce that the MSc thesis of Andrada Velea on the development of 'Flexible Passive and Active Graphene-based Spinal Cord Implants' won the audience award of the Young Medical Delta Thesis Awards 2020 with 418 out of the 1024 votes. The research theme is a successful synergy of the expertises of the ECTM and BE sections, and was supervised by Vasiliki Giagka and Sten Vollebregt. Andrada’s work has led to 2 IEEE conference publications, among which the prestigious 33rd IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2020), which took place earlier this year in Vancouver. We would like to congratulate her for this great achievement.

Medical Delta Professors appointed

• Monday, 22 June 2020

Medical Delta appointed 9 new MD Professors, with joint appointments at LUMC and TU Delft, or Erasmus MC and TU Delft. Three of these are connected to the MicroElectronics Department: Wouter Serdijn, Andrew Webb, and Natasja de Groot.

Prof. Dr. Natasja de Groot (Erasmus MC, TU Delft) researches the use of sensors and catheters to more accurately diagnose and treat cardiac arrhythmias. At TU Delft, she will have an affiliation with CAS and BE.

Prof. Dr. ir. Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft, Erasmus MC) researches the use of bioelectronics in medical research. At EMC, he will have an affiliation with Neuroscience.

Prof. Dr. Andrew Webb (LUMC, TU Delft) researches how imaging can be more widely available for medical purposes. He is a professor in MRI at LUMC, and already had a part-time appointment at CAS.

The new Medical Delta professors introduce themselves and their research in a short video. This can be viewed here:

Professor Wouter Serdijn appointed as Medical Delta Professor

• Monday, 18 May 2020

Since 2011 Medical Delta professorships have been established and approved by the executive board of Delft University of Technology, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University. At the moment 13 professors are active as Medical Delta professor.

A Medical Delta professorship is an honorary title for those who meet the requirements that they have double appointments at, at least, two of the three universities participating in Medical Delta and are active in research and teaching in a way that makes a Medical Delta appointment appropriate.

In the last year the board of Medical Delta together with the scientific council of the Medical Delta and governors of the academic knowledge institutes developed a process to identify the professors that fulfil these criteria. Based on this process a number of professors have been identified to be eligible for this honorary title of which professor Wouter Serdijn is one.

Kleine Stromstöße mit heilsamer Wirkung (Eng: Small surges of electricity with a healing effect)

• Thursday, 30 April 2020

Winzige Chips statt Medikamente – leitet die „Bioelektronik“ eine neue Ära der Medizin ein? Ein Überblick über die neuen Ansätze (Eng: Tiny chips instead of medication - does "bioelectronics" usher in a new era of medicine? An overview of the new approaches). Article by Susanne Donner with, a.o. Vasiliki Giagka in Der Tagespiegel.

How smart sensors can prevent epilepsy

• Tuesday, 21 April 2020

In Delft and Rotterdam, Wouter Serdijn and Christos Strydis are collaborating on a network of sensors and stimulators for the body. By picking up signals and sending the brain a rapid wake-up call, they hope to be able to predict and prevent epileptic fits. ‘If we can close the loop, we’ll have the technology ready within three years.’ Article in Nodes, with Christos Strydis and Wouter Serdijn.

Therapies without drugs -- Tech News

• Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Fraunhofer researchers Tim Hosman and Vasiliki Giagka are investigating the potential of microimplants to stimulate nerve cells and treat chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, or Parkinson’s disease. Find out what makes this form of treatment so appealing and which challenges the researchers still have to master.

Student Alberto brings wireless monitoring a step closer

• Saturday, 22 February 2020

In September 2017 Alberto Gancedo started his master programme Microelectronics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS). Alberto’s ambition was bigger than obtaining his degree. His ambition was to develop a small, portable and cheap monitoring device to detect unusual brain activity in premature babies directly after birth. Thanks to donations from EEMCS alumni, Alberto could start his master’s at TU Delft and work towards this ambition. Alberto graduated in the beginning of February 2020 and proudly updates Delft University Fund and EEMCS alumni about his achievements.

Christos Strydis winner of the Delft Health Competition

• Friday, 24 January 2020

During the Future Health at TU Delft Symposium of January 23, Christos Strydis (Computer Engineering, Bioelectronics and Neuroscience) won one of the three prizes of 10,000 Euro in the Delft Health Competition.

"The Rising Stars of TU Delft" featuring Tiago da Costa

• Friday, 15 November 2019

Delft Health Initiative introduces "The rising stars of the TU Delft". Here we present stories of talented researchers, assistant and associate professors in the field of healthcare. The goal is to get to know the rising stars, read about their research and ambitions, and look for collaborations. Click below for the story of rising star Tiago da Costa.

Call for Papers: Bioelectronic medicine: engineering advances, physiological insights, and translational applications

• Thursday, 5 September 2019

Special issue of Bioelectronic Medicine, edited by Vasiliki Giagka, Stavros Zanos, Timir Datta-Chaudhuri, Loren Rieth, and Theodoros Zanos

Wouter Serdijn appointed theme leader of Delft Health Initiative 2.0's NeuroTech theme

• Wednesday, 4 September 2019

The Delft Health Initiative has laid the foundation for connected health-oriented research at TU Delft and will continue to focus expertise, develop talent and to connect researchers to national and international initiatives. Wouter Serdijn will lead this for Neurotechnology.

Integrated devices for neuronal ultrasound stimulation

• Monday, 15 July 2019

Neuronal interfaces have been widely developed in last decades with the purpose of providing a path for communication with the nervous system. The most common neuronal interfaces are based on electrical recording and stimulation of neuronal activity, which typically require surgical implantation of electrodes to achieve the necessary spatial resolution. To overcome the many hurdles and risks of surgery, non-invasive techniques to interface with the nervous system are currently being developed, and one of the most promising techniques uses focused ultrasound as a neuromodulation therapeutic modality. Due to its non-invasiveness, to achieve the necessary high spatial resolution, comparable to implantable electrodes, ultrasound transducers and electronics must be integrated in the same device. Its success may lead the way to surgery-free neuro-prosthetics and electroceuticals.

Read more on Pages 29-31 of ETV's Maxwell 22.4

Het medicijn van de toekomst slik je maar een keer en is bioelektronisch

• Monday, 15 July 2019

Item op BNR Nieuwsradio van 15 juli 2019, met een bijdrage van Wouter Serdijn over het onderzoek op bioelektronische medicijnen zoals onderzocht worden aan de TU Delft

Open Course Analog Integrated Circuit Design No. 1 in Microelectronics and No. 2 in Electrical Engineering

• Thursday, 2 May 2019

Analog Integrated Circuit Design is an introductory course in analog circuit synthesis for microelectronic designers. Topics include: Review of analog design basics; linear and non-linear analog building blocks: harmonic oscillators, (static and dynamic) translinear circuits, wideband amplifiers, filters; physical layout for robust analog circuits; design of voltage sources ranging from simple voltage dividers to high-performance bandgaps, and current source implementations from a single resistor to high-quality references based on negative-feedback structures.

Asli Yelkenci wins BioEl 2019 best poster presentation

• Tuesday, 2 April 2019

Asli presented her approach for co-integration of planar patch-clamps and microelectrode arrays in the same device, thus enabling for high-throughput simultaneous intra- and extra-cellular measurements of cardiac cells. Asli received a prize of 300 Euros sponsored by Panaxium.

Ref: A. Yelkenci, R. Martins da Ponte, V. Valente. Co-integration of flip-tip patch clamp and microelectrode arrays for in-vitro recording of electrical activity of cardiac cells. Presented at the 2019 Winterschool on Bioelectronics, Kirchberg, Austria, 16-23 March 2019.

Vasiliki Giagka appointed associate editor for Bioelectronic Medicine

• Saturday, 9 March 2019

Bioelectronic Medicine (BM) is an open access, peer reviewed and relatively young journal published by the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research (in New York, NJ, USA) on BMC’s platform (part of Springer Nature): https://bioelecmed.biomedcentral.com. The journal brings together material science, molecular medicine, bioengineering, neuroscience, computer science and other related disciplines focused on new insights into the role of the nervous system in disease and health, and the importance of discovering new molecular mechanisms and technologies to treat disease. The journal has an expanded community and multidisciplinary audience from healthcare, technology and scientific research. Specialists writing for BM come from fields such as neuroscience, biology, bioengineering, electronics, computing, data analytics, molecular medicine, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and personalized medicine and last named is extremely important in the upcoming domain of bioelectronic medicine, also known as electroceuticals, the electronic counterparts of pharmaceuticals.

At the core of electroceuticals is the electrical signal used by the nervous system to communicate information. Virtually every cell in the body is directly or indirectly controlled by these neural signals. Bioelectronic medicine technologies can record, stimulate and block neural signaling. Through its ability to manipulate neural signals it will change the way physicians treat diseases and conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, diabetes, paralysis, bleeding and even cancer.

All articles published by BM are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. This nicely aligns with Delft University of Technology’s Open Acces policy.

For the same journal, Wouter Serdijn (also Section Bioelectronics at Delft University of Technology) has agreed to be serving as contributing editor. In this role, he will advise the editors of new trends, which may soon become prevalent in the field; keep up-to-date with the journal’s publications and provide feedback to the editors; contribute topic ideas and manuscripts to thematic series that will be implemented by the journal in the future; recommend articles from the field for publication.

Wouter Serdijn nieuw lid Wetenschappelijke Raad Medical Delta

• Friday, 22 February 2019

Als lid heeft Wouter Serdijn de taak om bij te dragen aan het creëren van het wetenschappelijk programma en daarmee aan de visie van Medical Delta. Hij helpt mede vorm te geven aan onderzoeksprogramma’s en zal als ambassadeur optreden. Serdijn: “Met diverse langlopende samenwerkingen met zowel het ErasmusMC en het LUMC waren EWI en mijn sectie Bioelectronics al ‘Medical Delta’ vanaf het eerste uur. Niet zo verwonderlijk, want het behouden en terugwinnen van 100% gezondheid gerelateerde kwaliteit van leven vraagt steeds vaker micro-elektronische ondersteuning. Deze ondersteuning is belangrijk, zowel voor het begrijpen van de menselijke fysiologie en het menselijk gedrag als voor het betrouwbaar stellen van een diagnose, voor het nauwkeurig en ongestoord monitoren en voor een succesvolle persoonlijke behandeling. Ik denk dat dit goed aansluit bij de missie van Medical Delta en ik draag namens EWI graag een steentje bij.”

Medical Delta is een netwerk van life sciences, gezondheids- en technologie-organisaties. Gevestigd in de Nederlandse Rijndeltaregio bundelen zij een brede kennis en ervaring en fungeren als katalysator voor innovatie en samenwerking op het gebied van gezondheid.

First Microelectronics Synergy Grants

• Friday, 22 February 2019

According to Professor Geert Leus who heads the ME Research Committee, the Synergy Grants are also intended to kick-start the research of young faculty, as it can be quite challenging for them to obtain funding at the beginning of their research careers. The grants cover half the costs of a PhD candidate, with the rest coming from existing research funding. ‘The submitted proposals were carefully evaluated by the ME Research Committee on the basis of their scientific quality, their clarity and feasibility, the synergy between the participating sections, and the relationship to the departmental themes. The ME Management Team (MT) then decided to award Synergy Grants to the top three proposals.’

Changes

The aim of the grants is to encourage newly emerging combinations of technologies and to facilitate cross-overs between them, thus strengthening and broadening the department's research portfolio. This goal fits seamlessly within the research strategy of ME, which has defined itself around the four themes of Health & Wellbeing, XG, Safety & Security and Autonomous Systems to better address societal challenges.

Winners

Last week, the winners were received by the ME MT. They received flowers from the head of the department (Kofi Makinwa) and had the opportunity to briefly present their proposals to the assembled MT. Below are short descriptions of the successful proposals.

Akira Endo & Sten Vollebregt: ‘The aim of our project TANDEM: Terahertz Astronomy with Novel DiElectric Materials is to develop advanced dielectric materials to realize superconducting microstrip lines with very low losses in the frequency ranges of 2-10 GHz and 100-1000 GHz. The PhD candidate will combine the dielectric deposition, characterization, material expertise and facilities of the ECTM group and the Else Kooi Laboratory, and the submillimetre wave device measurement capability of the THz Sensing Group and SRON. The aim is not only to realize low loss dielectrics, but also to understand the underlying physics that governs these losses. If successful, these microstrips will be immediately applied to enhance the sensitivity of the DESHIMA spectrometer on the ASTE telescope in Chile.’

Bori Hunyadi: ‘On one hand, the vast complexity of the human brain (10^11 neurons and 10^14 connections) enables us to process large amounts of information in the fraction of a second. At the same time, imperfections of the wiring in this vast network cause devastating neurological and psychiatric conditions such as epilepsy or schizophrenia. Therefore, understanding brain function is one of the greatest and most important scientific challenges of our times. Brain function manifests as various physical phenomena (electrical or e.g. metabolic) at different spatial and temporal scales. Therefore, the PhD candidate working on this grant will develop a novel multimodal and multiresolution brain imaging paradigm combining EEG and a novel imaging technique, fUS. The specific engineering challenge is to understand and describe the fUS signal characteristics, deal with the large amount of data it records using efficient computational tools; and finally, formulate the specification of a dedicated non-invasive, multimodal, wearable EEG-fUS device.’

Virgilio Valente & Massimo Mastrangeli: ‘The seed money of the Synergy Grant will partially support a joint PhD candidate to investigate the tight integration of an heart-on-chip device with dedicated electronic instrumentation in the same platform. Our aim is to bring sensing and readout electronics as close as possible to a cardiac tissue cultivated within a dedicated micro physiological device. The grant helps promoting the logical convergence between current departmental research activities at ECTM and BE and within the Netherlands Organ-on-Chip Initiative (NOCI) on the development of instrumented organ-on-chip devices.’

Microelectronics at work for sustainable healthcare

• Saturday, 19 January 2019

The Medical Delta has launched twelve research programmes that work on technological solutions for sustainable care. EEMCS is represented in three programmes; Neurodelta (Wouter Serdijn), Medical Delta Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab (Wouter Serdijn and Alle-Jan van der Veen) and Ultrafast Ultrasound for the Heart and Brain (Michiel Pertijs), all part of the Microelectronics department.

In order to give the research programmes an extra impulse, a strategically important project is financed within each research programme.

In the Medical Delta 2.0 Neurodelta program Vasiliki Giagka and Wouter Serdijn (both Section  Bioelectronics) will work on miniature implants for simultaneously measuring and influencing brain activity by means of light and ultrasound.

Read more about Vasiliki Giagka's work: https://www.tudelft.nl/ewi/actueel/nodes/stories/elektrische-implantaten/

Within the Medical Delta 2.0 Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab, Virgilio Valente (Section Bioelectronics) and Richard Hendriks and Borbala Hunyadi (both Section CAS) will work on new bioelectronic signal acquisition and processing techniques to identify the electropathology of cardiac dysrhythmia, such as atrial fibrillation, in an organ-on-chip set-up.

Read more about the work of Virgillio Valente: https://bme.weblog.tudelft.nl/2018/12/11/biocmos/ 

Within the Medical Delta 2.0 programme Ultrafast Ultrasound for the Heart and Brain, Michiel Pertijs (Section Electronic Instrumentation) will work on smart ultrasound probes that can take 3D images of the heart and brain at high speed, with the aim of enabling new and better diagnostics of cardiovascular and neurological disorders.

Read more about the work of Michiel Pertijs: https://www.tudelft.nl/ewi/actueel/nodes/stories/echos-uit-een-pleister/    

More information about Medical Delta: www.medicaldelta.nl/news/overzicht-programmas-medical-delta-20192023

Health Prototype Grant for Virgilio Valente

• Saturday, 19 January 2019

The TU Delft Health Initiative objective is to promote research in the field of healthcare at Delft University of Technology and they granted 13 out of total 26 applications. ‘Organs-on-chip (OoC) systems represent the new frontier in biomedical engineering, aiming at re-producing and mimicking key aspects of living organs on microengineered biosystems, by modeling the structural and functional complexity of organs, tissue to tissue interactions and cellular metabolism. Coupled to microfluidics and multi-parameter sensing, OoCs promise a significant revolution in the development of future targeted drugs and therapies, by providing a vital alternative to conven-tional cell cultures and animal models. By leveraging the distinctive features of modern complemen-tary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, coupled with high-density microelectrode array (MEA) systems, we can develop complex yet com-pact microelectronic biodevices capable of interact-ing with biological networks at a single-cell scale with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. Im-pedance-based measurements (IM) have shown significant potential in monitoring cell and tissue contractions, morphology and cell-to-cell heteroge-neity. Impedance assays are currently routinely developed to assess drug toxicity in cardiac cell cul-tures. Commercial systems, including the xCELLI-gence RCTA by ACEA Biosystems, are based on the use of two electrodes for IM, which greatly limits the measurement resolution. To date, there is no com-mercial or research system capable of measuring impedance profiles from cardiac cell culture with high resolution.’

Read more about the work of Virgillio Valente: https://bme.weblog.tudelft.nl/2018/12/11/biocmos/

BioCMOS

• Tuesday, 11 December 2018

The new frontier in smart and efficient diagnostics and analytics is represented by the fusion of semiconductor technologies and electrochemical sensors. BioCMOS devices, also known as Lab-on-CMOS or CMOS biosensors, consist of microelectronic interfaces with integrated high-density sensing elements. On top of these elements, biological and chemical assays can be directly performed, limiting considerably the need for additional external units. The Bioelectronics group is currently developing BioCMOS microsystems that target applications, including lab-on-chip and organ-on-chip platforms, point-of-care devices, implantable and injectable smart biosensors. By leveraging the distinctive features of modern complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, we can develop complex yet compact microelectronic bio-devices capable of interacting with biological networks at a cellular and molecular scale with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. BioCMOS technology promises to play a key role in defining future targeted therapies and personalized medicine, cost-effective drug discovery and development, and efficient disease management strategies. Read more on Page 18-21.

Bioelectronic Medicine

• Tuesday, 11 December 2018

Imagine a tiny device that can treat patients by injecting small electrical pulses into the neuronal tissue. These tiny microelectronic devices are the main focus of a new exciting field called Bioelectronic Medicine, with the main goal of one day replacing conventional chemical drugs. When implanted, these devices can act on the body’s nervous system to treat a wide variety of disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, Crohn’s disease, migraine, epilepsy, etc.[1] .The technological challenges behind realizing such devices, however, are enormous and encompass almost every facet of microfabrication and bioengineering technologies. Read more on Page 6, 7 and 8.

Volgens de wetenschap kunnen doven straks horen en blinden zien

• Friday, 26 October 2018

Er staan veel filmpjes online van emotionele mensen die, met behulp van moderne technologie, voor het eerst hun familie kunnen zien. Of van kinderen die voor het eerst de stem van hun ouders horen. Het zijn voorbeelden van de eerste stappen naar het genezen van blindheid. Prof. dr. Wouter Serdijn doet onderzoek naar het ontwikkelen van bio-elektronica met als doel het behandelen van deze menselijke kwalen. Artikel in het AD van 26 oktober 2018.

Vacancy: Assistant/Associate Professor of Bioelectronics

• Friday, 28 September 2018

Assistant/Associate Professor of Bioelectronics

Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) is known worldwide for its high academic quality and the social relevance of its research programmes. The faculty’s excellent facilities accentuate its international position in teaching and research. Within this interdisciplinary and international setting the faculty employs more than 1100 employees, including about 400 graduate students and about 2100 students. Together they work on a broad range of technical innovations in the fields of sustainable energy, telecommunications, microelectronics, embedded systems, computer and software engineering, interactive multimedia and applied mathematics.

The Department of Microelectronics has a strong interdisciplinary research and education programme in the areas of 1. health and well-being, 2. autonomous systems, 3. next generation wireless and sensing technology and 4. safety and security.

With 11 IEEE Fellows among the staff, an excellent microfabrication infrastructure, electrical and physical characterisation facilities, and a strong international academic and industrial network, the department provides high-level expertise in each of these areas throughout the entire system chain.

The Section Bioelectronics is a relatively new section that has been created to address coherently the challenges we face in developing bioelectronic medicine and electroceuticals. The group conducts research, education and valorisation in the fields of circuits and systems for active wearable, implantable and injectable biomedical diagnostic, monitoring and therapeutic microsystems. The group is active in the domains of biosignal acquisition, conditioning and detection, electrical stimulation, transcutaneous wireless communication and power transfer, energy harvesting, bioinspired circuits and systems, CMOS diagnostic systems, flexible implants and microsystem integration.

Job description

The Bioelectronics group is offering a tenure-track position at the Assistant or Associate Professor level in the field of biomedical circuits and systems. You will further develop existing research topics, such as mixed-mode and digital circuits and systems for active wearable and implantable medical devices and create new topics, which may include bioelectronic medicine. You will be involved in teaching at the BSc and MSc levels in the TU Delft's Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering programmes and the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Technical Medicine programme. Collaborative initiatives are strongly encouraged. You are expected to write research proposals for national and international funding organisations. This is a tenure-track position for a period of five years with the possibility of a permanent faculty position at the end of the contract, subject to mutual agreement.

A Tenure Track, a process leading up to a permanent appointment with the prospect of becoming an Associate or Full Professor, offers young, talented academics a clear and attractive career path. During the Tenure Track, you will have the opportunity to develop into an internationally acknowledged and recognised academic. We offer a structured career and personal development programme designed to offer individual academics as much support as possible. For more information about the Tenure Track and the personal development programme, please visit www.tudelft.nl/tenuretrack.

Job requirements

You must have a PhD degree in the field of biomedical circuits and systems (BioCAS) and some years of experience as a post-doc or university professor. You have an excellent academic track record, reflected by peer-reviewed journal publications, conference contributions, and international research experience. An affinity for working on the interface with other disciplines (biomedical engineering, neuroscience, electrophysiology, biomedical signal processing, etc.) and with clinicians and medical researchers is preferred. You should have a demonstrated ability to initiate and direct research projects and to obtain external funding. Experience in teaching and mentoring of students is required. A teaching qualification is recommended. Demonstrated ability in written and spoken English is required.

Employment conditions

At the start of the tenure track you will be appointed as Assistant Professor for the duration of six years. Section leader, department leaders and you will agree upon expected performance and (soft) skills. You will receive formal feedback on performance and skills during annual assessment meetings and the mid-term evaluation. If the performance and skills are evaluated positively at the end of the tenure track, you will be appointed in a permanent Assistant Professor position.

TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children’s Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

TU Delft sets specific standards for the English competency of the teaching staff. TU Delft offers training to improve English competency.

Inspiring, excellent education is our central aim. If you have less than five years of experience and do not yet have your teaching certificate, we allow you up to three years to obtain this.

Information and application

For information about this vacancy, you can contact Prof. Wouter Serdijn, email: W.A.Serdijn@tudelft.nl.

For information about the selection procedure, please contact Mrs. L.M. Ophey, HR-Advisor, email: hr-eemcs@tudelft.nl

To apply, please submit by email a detailed CV that includes a list of publications, contact information of at least three scientists whom we can contact for letters of recommendation, and a research and teaching statement along with a letter of application by November 30, 2018 to: hr-eemcs@tudelft.nl.

When applying please mention vacancy number EWI2018-28.