Frits van Heijster
Frits van Heijster is a PhD-candidate in the Biomedical MR research group of prof.dr. Arend Heerschap at the department of Radiology within the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre. Frits obtained his MSc. degree in Chemistry at the Raboud University Nijmegen in 2012, his research thesis was titeled "Differences in mobility between different polymorphs of venlafaxine studied by 13C-Solid State NMR" and his literature thesis "Hyperpolarization of bulk nuclei in Dynamic Nuclear Polarization NMR". Since April 2012 he is trying to study processes associated with tumor cell metabolism and necrosis using hyperpolarization techniques. The research is part of the UltraSense NMR project in which two research groups at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (Heerschap, Schalken), three research groups at the Faculty of Science of the Radboud University Nijmegen (Rutjes, Wijmenga, Kentgens), one research group at the University of Twente (Gardeniers) and three spin-off companies of the Radboud University Nijmegen (Future Chemistry, Spinnovation and NovioGendix) are working on further development of the hyperpolarization techniques, applying them in vivo and on the development of a diagnostic test to detect prostate cancer in an early stage using these hyperpolarization techniques. The UltraSense NMR project is funded by the European Union via the EFRO project (Europees Fonds voor Regionale Ontwikkelingen - 'Hier wordt geïnvesteerd in uw toekomst') and GO Gebundelde Inovatiekracht.
