During the year, we have multiple contacts with various patient’s associations. Today, we had the privilege of participating in the National Patient Day for uveal melanoma patients, which was organized by Stichting Melanoom. The program offered a great mix of information on various treatment options and exciting updates on new clinical studies, both for primary and metastatic UM. Jan-Willem presented the details of our upcoming clinical study on MR-based clipless ocular proton therapy.
Today, we visited the muZIEum in Nijmegen, a unique museum dedicated to providing insight into the lives of those who are blind or visually impaired. The highlight of our visit was an immersive “tour in darkness,” where we experienced daily tasks without the use of sight. Guided by a knowledgeable individual living with vision impairment, we gained firsthand understanding of the challenges and adaptations involved in everyday life.
Luc van Vught successfully defended his PhD thesis titled “Uncovering the Origin of Negative Dysphotopsia” at Leiden University. His research focused on understanding and preventing negative dysphotopsia—a phenomenon where patients perceive dark shadows in their vision following cataract surgery. By combining optical simulations and MRI scans of the eye, Luc elucidated the cause of this visual complaint and explore potential preventive measures.
As we reflect on the past year, we celebrate the exciting scientific achievements that have shaped our work—some of which are subtly referenced in the picture above. Even more, we cherish the diverse and inspiring interactions we’ve shared with clinicians, (basic) scientists, patients, and industry partners.
Today three of our group members joined the Walk and Ride to raise funds for the Oogfonds, the National association for patients with ocular conditions. The Oogfonds is a partner in many of our projects, such as the recently funded development of an ocular cone-beam CT scanner. After a nice lunch, we cycled 83km through the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. A big thank you for all those friends, family and colleagues who supported us!
Today Corné launched Visisipy, our open source platform for vision simulations, at the Visual and Physiological Optics conference in Wroclaw, Polen. Visisipy has been developed as part of the OPENOPTICS project and aims to develop an open toolbox for optical simulations of the eye.
We are excited to share that our application to develop a cone-beam CT scanner for the eyes has been funded as part of the Open Technology Programme of the Dutch Research Council.
Science is great… but so is a little friendly competition every now and then! On Thursday, researchers from the Gorter Center, including some from the MReye group, showed their athleticism in a cycling race against the MRI research groups from UMC Utrecht and Amsterdam UMC. Each group started in pairs from their own center and raced to the finish line in Nieuwerbrug. A big congrats to the winners from Utrecht! After the race and social ride, everybody could socialize during drinks and dinner. What a fun day!
Today, we attended the Second International PTCOG Ocular Proton Therapy Symposium 2024! We enjoyed the interesting talks, lively discussions and pizza breaks. And of course, we’re very proud of Corné Haasjes, who received the Best Presentation Award for his talk ‘Optical aberration correction of fundus photographs for ocular proton therapy planning’. Later this week, we will travel to Groningen for the annual conference of the Dutch Society of Ophthalmology (Nederlands Oogheelkundig Gezelschap), where many of us will present our latest results.
Every year, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) publishes “Resultaat”, a magazine highlighting last year’s ground-breaking, surprising and above all socially relevant scientific results from the previous year. The 2023 edition features an interview with members of our group on the impact of our MRI technologies on the lives of patients with eye cancer. A nice recognition of the societal relevance of our work!
