Within the Master's programs students can choose between three different specialization directions: Chemical Biology, Biomedical Imaging & Modeling and Biomechanics & Tissue Engineering. Each of these divisions is in turn split up into a number of research groups.
Chemical Biology
The design of new medicines, biomaterials, the science that is about genes and proteins: it is all based on the understanding and design of (new) molecules. That is the agreement between the five sections that fall within Chemical Biology. The research is clustered in the following research groups. A brief summary of the research within the group is available for each group.
• Biomedical Chemistry – Designing drug delivery systems and scaffold proteins. Scaffolds are biocompatible substrates that cells can grow on. This plays an important role in tissue engineering.• Chemical Biology – Onderzoek naar het ontstaan van ziekten als Alzheimer en Creutzfeldt-Jakob. Dit zijn allebei ziektes die te maken hebben met het aggregeren (aan elkaar klonten) van eiwitten.
• Chemical Biology – Research into the development of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Creutzfeldt-Jakob. These are both diseases that have to do with aggregating (clumping) proteins.
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• Molecular Biosensing for Medical Diagnostics – Develop techniques for detecting and monitoring molecules and molecular processes. Using biomarkers visualization of the cellular function and the consequence of the molecular processes in living organisms is made possible.
• Bio-organic Chemistry – Develop smart components that exhibit life characteristics. There are two main lines of research: nanomedicine, and artificial cells and organelles.
• Protein Engineering – Research into combining protein engineering and DNA nanotechnology to develop intelligent biomolecular sensors.
Biomedical Imaging & Modeling
Within this division one tries to predict the structure, function and metabolism of living cells and tissues for both research and clinical diagnostics. This is done by combining methods and techniques from mathematics, computer science, physics, electrical engineering and medicine in the modeling and imaging of biomedical systems. Developing software for processing medical images is also important. The topics studied are quite broad. Examples are the display and analysis of various electrophysiological signals in cardiac fibrillation or epilepsy, the calculation of forces on bones during loading and simulation of the formation of biomembranes. The research is clustered in two research groups:
• Medical Image Analysis – Programming software to analyze and / or edit medical images
• Computational Biology – The development and application of computer simulations to study systems in the body.
Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering
In this division one starts from the fact that living tissues respond actively to their environment. Principles from fluid mechanics, mechanics and biology are applied to a variety of biomedical problems and equipment. The emphasis is on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the cardiovascular and skeletal muscle system. This is often done patient specific using model-based results. This division has 3 research groups:
• Cardiovascular Biomechanics – Research in the field of computational and experimental biomechanical analysis of the cardiovascular system is used to develop computational models, experimental techniques and medical equipment for clinical diagnosis, decision making and treatment.• Orthopaedic Biomechanics – Onderzoek naar de biomechanische eigenschappen en aanpassingsvermogen van skeletspier weefsels (bijv. bot, kraakbeen en ligamenten) wordt gebruikt om regeneratieve behandelingsstrategieën te ontwikkelen.
• Orthopaedic Biomechanics – Research on the biomechanical properties and adaptability of skeletal muscle tissues (eg bone, cartilage and ligaments) is used to develop regenerative treatment strategies.
• Soft Tissue Engineering & Mechanobiology – Research on the effect of mechanical force on tissues, in particular on the intrinsic mechanical response and the adaptability of the tissue, is used in the cultivation of tissues, such as for example a heart valve
