Nico van den Berg

Professor Nico van den Berg is the head of the Computational Imaging group for MRI diagnostics and therapy of the Centre of Image Sciences at the UMC Utrecht. The Computational Imaging group covers all aspects of the MRI workflow for diagnostics and therapy, from first principles modelling and hardware engineering to translating new MRI methods into clinic. For this purpose we draw on expertise and advances from the fields of (MR) physics, mathematics, computing and artificial intelligence.

One important research line is the exploration of next generation techniques to make MRI exams much shorter, reduce patient discomfort and therefore also increase robustness and diagnostic quality. An example of this is the MR-STAT technique developed within the group that can deliver quantitative MRI information based on raw time-domain signals in a fraction of scan time.
Moreover, within my group we have a large research activity on the use of MRI for radiation therapy. This includes 3D motion tracking of moving targets in  MR guided radiation delivery, MRI-only radiation planning and deep learning image processing applications for radiation therapy.

We pay considerable attention to translate our work to actual (clinical) usage in radiotherapy and radiology/ Currently, the group consists of three senior staff members, one computer scientist, four post-docs and eight PhD students.

Prof. Van den Berg is one of the coordinators of the UMC Utrecht accelerator Image guided interventions and the UMCU AI lab for Imaging and Image guided interventions.

Prof. Van den Berg has a 0.9 fte position at the UMC Utrecht. Prof. Van den Berg is co-founder and a minority shareholder of UMCU spin off PrecorDx.  PrecorDx is the winner of the NWO Venture Challenge 2022.