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Laboratory: SMEScientist leader: Dennis Klomp
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- Key personnel
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Dr. Dennis Klomp, obtained a PhD in biomedicine in 2007 at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands. After a one-year postdoc working at the Hahn institute in Essen, he became assistant professor at the University Medical Center in Utrecht in 2008, and since 2013 associate professor in ultra-high-field clinical MRI. In 2012, he was visiting professor at Vanderbilt University (USA) to learn about metabolic imaging, and in 2014 at Nottingham University (UK) to learn about gradient coil designs for ultra-high resolution MRI. Dr. Klomp chaired the highfield MRI meeting in 2014, and is member of the board of MR spectroscopy of the international society of magnetic resonance in medicine since 2016, published over 100 scientific papers in MRI coil design and its clinical use, and was awarded with a total over 8M€ of grants.
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Mr Michel Italiaander, obtained a BSc in electrical engineering in 2011 after which he joined the UMC Utrecht where he invented the high density array. Since 2013 he co-founded the company MR Coils BV in which he became the CEO.
In 2015 he started a second company called IE-components that provides machined cabling and PCB’s as OEM to RF companies. Since 2016, Michel Italiaander is the CEO of MR Code that provides software to drive MRI systems to optimal performance. -
Dr. Debrah Rivera, obtained a PhD in biomedicine in 2009 at the University Center of Los Angeles (UCLA). She continued working as a postdoc in Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences on developing novel arrays for parallel transmit at 7T imaging of the brain. In 2013-2014 she worked at the University Medical Center Utrecht on translating her designs for metabolic imaging in breast cancer. In 2015 she continued her work at the Max Planck Institute after which she accepted a senior technology position at MR Coils in 2016.
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Martijn Lunenburg, obtained a MSc in electrical engineering in 2017 at the Eindhoven University of Technology, and is specialized in Electro Magnetics. For his master thesis he worked at the University Medical Center in Utrecht on the development of a magnetic shield based on metamaterials for a birdcage coil at 7T, for this thesis different EM solvers were used, and a prototype was made to prove the feasibility of a magnetic shield based on split ring resonators. Since 2014, he was working part-time at MR Coils and after finishing his study continued working there on a full-time base. His work mainly consists of engineering new RF hardware (birdcage coil, high power RF hardware, etc.) for MRI applications.
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Lysanne Post has been working for MR Coils since 2016 as customer service representative. In addition, she is responsible for administration and management of grant projects.
MR Coils BV is a small/medium enterprise (SME) dedicated to designing and producing novel MRI solutions to provide detailed MRI at highest sensitivity. The company, owned by two shareholders (Dennis Klomp and Michel Italiaander), was founded in May 2013 as a spin-out of the University Medical Center Utrecht. MR Coils BV currently has 25 employees (May 2016) and was nominated as best growing SME of the district of 2015. Since March 2016, MR Coils BV has increased its capacity to a 2000m2 factory.
MR Coils has provided novel solutions to many MRI top-sites in Europe and beyond: Nottingham, Cardiff, Oxford, London, Copenhagen, Lund, Essen, Heidelberg, Lausanne, Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht, Maastricht, Texas, Nashville, Baltimore, and New York. Moreover the solutions have been interfaced both on clinical MRI systems (Philips, Siemens) as well as on preclinical systems (Bruker, Varian), and current prospects include General Electric and MR Solutions as well.