News

IDE students showcase health design project at UN Climate Change Conference

A team of five IPD MSc students was selected to present their project, KUKUA, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai. They developed a diagnostic device which detects early malnutrition of children in rural areas in East Africa.

Two new Medical Delta professors at IDE

On 14 November, a new group of Medical Delta professors and lecturers were inaugurated. Professor Diehl (TU Delft, Erasmus MC) and Professor Atsma (LUMC, TU Delft) were among the nine Medical Delta professors inaugurated.

Safe and affordable red blood cells without donors

The production of cultured red blood cells (cRBCs) holds the promise of being a potentially unlimited source of cells that could meet the increasing demand for red blood cell transfusions.

TU Delft joins EBRAINS: advancing brain research and innovation

Today marks a significant milestone as TU Delft officially joins EBRAINS, a state-of-the-art digital research infrastructure developed by the EU-funded Human Brain Project, which serves as a comprehensive hub for brain-related data and tools.

DNA Origami nanoturbine sets new horizon for nanomotors

Hester Anderiesen–Le Riche elected TU Delft Alumnus of the Year 2023

Innovative Health Initiative grant of EUR 24 million to improve cancer treatments

The Innovative Health Initiative has awarded a EUR 24 million grant to the IMAGIO consortium of clinical partners coordinated by Philips, with additional resources and funding by industry partners. The consortium will carry out research into improving clinical outcomes through less invasive treatments for lung cancer, liver cancer and soft tissue sarcomas.

TU Delft and Janssen collaborate on affordable medicines

Demand for affordable biopharmaceuticals such as vaccines and cancer drugs is steadily increasing. Researchers from the Department of Biotechnology at TU Delft's Faculty of Applied Sciences are now set to join forces with pharmaceutical company Janssen to develop a solution. The official project launch took place on 16 June 2023. The aim of the project is to replace manual operations in order to design automated, continuous biotech processes with higher yields.

TU Delft and RUG/UMCG join forces to develop child-friendly button cell

Studio Groot to distribute Torrie toys from Healthy Storytelling project

Excess weight and obesity are increasingly common in our society. In response to this, researchers from the TU Delft | Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering’s (IDE) Healthy Storytelling project began investigating how to foster conversations around topics such as these. And now, one of the products they designed to help with this task - the Torrie plush toy – will be distributed by Studio Groot.

Nature publication on loops, flags and tension in DNA

Two protein complexes carry the major responsibility for the spatial organisation of chromosomes in our cell nuclei. DNA tension plays a surprising role in this. Together with Austrian colleagues, nanoscientist Cees Dekker and his PhD candidate Roman Barth of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at TU Delft now publish how they have visualised this in detail in Nature on April 19.

TU Delft researchers shed new light on the motor of DNA replication

DNA replication is the process whereby cells make an exact copy of their DNA before cell division. A key part of the intricate DNA replication machinery is a molecular motor called CMG, which has the vital task of separating the two strands of the DNA double helix so that they can be copied. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from TU Delft has now developed a new methodology to assemble and image the motion of CMG with unprecedented resolution.

New CardioVascular Biomechanics Lab presents golden opportunity for engineers, physicians and patients alike

Delftse wetenschappers en studenten die onderzoek doen naar de biomechanica van het hart en bloedvaten werken samen met cardiologen, neurologen en radiologen van het Erasmus MC in het CardioVascular Biomechanics Lab (CVBL). Ze werken dagelijks aan biomechanische vraagstukken op het gebied van hart -en vaatziekten en blijken daarbij van onschatbare waarde voor elkaar.

From The Start: The Early Design Bird Gets The Remanufacturing Worm

The circular economy. Sustainability. Refurbishment. Remanufacturing. Recycling. We hear these buzzwords used all the time when talking about how humanity needs to lessen its impact on the planet. For her PhD research, Nina Boorsma looked into how to get companies to make more sustainable products and found that the process needs to start early.

New tool for organ repair: curvature of the environment

Circular composites - design is the missing link

Composite materials have a lot to offer in terms of fine-tuning material properties, optimising functionality, and ensuring a long-life span. Despite those advantages, they still leave a lot to be desired when it comes to reuse and recycling. For his PhD, Jelle Joustra explored strategies for making composite materials that support a circular economy, proposing that design is the missing link.

Delft design method maps a route through the confusion for cancer patients

Cancer patients can often find it difficult to maintain a good overview of their situation. This is why Ingeborg Griffioen, a Delft industrial designer, developed the Metro Mapping design method for patients and care providers, to enable them to reach better shared decisions about treatment. Experts in design engineering from TU Delft are now joining forces with medical professionals and researchers from Erasmus MC and the LUMC and the Panton design agency to further develop and apply Griffioen’s method in the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain.

Pushing the boundaries of ultrasound

Physicist David Maresca has received a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Dynamic Imaging grant to develop a next-generation medical ultrasound tool. While state-of-the-art ultrasound imaging, known to most as a baby’s first picture, can show our anatomy and organs, the new tool will be able to zoom in much further, all the way down to the level of the cells in our body.

Victims of the war in Ukraine receive prosthetic hands designed by TU Delft

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the need for prosthetic hands has increased sharply. TU Delft researcher Gerwin Smit has designed a prosthetic hand that can be made through a combination of 3-D printing and laser-cutting, which means that they be produced easily and relatively cheaply in countries that have little money to spend on such things. These prosthetic hands are already being used in India and now, the Indian technology company Vispala has donated 350 of Smit’s 3D-printed prosthetic hands to war victims in Ukraine, sponsored by the American IT-company, Cisco.

Computer gives people with depression symptoms insight into their thinking patterns

Our thoughts greatly determine how we feel and behave. Thus, gaining insight into certain thought patterns is an important part of preventing and treating depression. TU Delft researcher Franziska Burger investigated how AI can support people with symptoms of depression.

Medical experts and engineers speak each other’s language in Delft

An outpatients’ centre for cancer patients is certainly not the first thing you would expect to encounter on TU Delft campus. ‘But the decision to choose Delft as the location for the Holland Proton Therapy Centre has actually proved to be a very smart move’, says Medical Director Prof. Marco van Vulpen. The location alongside the TU Delft Reactor Institute offers an excellent opportunity for clinicians and engineers to collaborate closely.

3-in-1 microscope shows researchers the way to proteins

Physicists from TU Delft have developed a 3-in-1 microscope where a light beam, electron beam and ion beam work together to precisely cut out specific slices from biological samples. These slices are indispensable for biomolecular research into new generations of medicines. The invention was published in the journal eLife on 1 December.

ERC Starting Grant for spying on microscopic blood vessels in the heart and brain

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Starting Grant to Delft physicist Sebastian Weingärtner for his research on novel imaging methods to tackle heart and brain diseases.

Eight health professors receive double appointment simultaneously

Today, eight professors were simultaneously inaugurated as "Medical Delta professors" at Leiden University, LUMC, TU Delft, Erasmus University and/or Erasmus MC. With an appointment of two or more of these five academic institutions, they combine technology and healthcare in their professorships.
Atleet op een hometrainer, met technologie in snoertjes bevestigd aan sportkleding en op het lichaam.

Using sensors to stop sports injuries

All athletes, from amateurs joggers to elite footballers, experience sports injuries. What if medical professionals could predict when those injuries were going to occur and stop the damaging activity before the injury happens? In her PhD research, Annemarijn Steijlen takes a step in that direction.